Dear Editor,

As a recent edition of the Lincoln County Record announced, meetings of the County Commissioners typically begin with an invocation and local faith leaders are often invited to offer it. But according to the Records article, the January 4, 2021, meeting would be quite different.

On January 4, 2021, Rajan Zed, President of the alleged Universal Society of Hinduism, would telephonically open the meeting with Hindu Mantras (a sacred utterance or spiritual sound in Hindu considered to possess mystical or spiritual results). He would then deliver the invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures, (an ancient Indo-European language of India, in which the Hindu scriptures are written and Indian languages are derived). After his Sanskrit delivery to the Commissioners, he would then read the English interpretation of his presentation.

Because an invocation is usually defined as a prayer invoking Gods presence, especially one said at the beginning of a religious service or public ceremony, questions surfaced by readers of Zeds article to the Record, as to exactly what Rajan Zed was going to deliver as an invocation.

The Founding Fathers of this Country were Judeo-Christian thinkers and believers and their intention for prayers was to one God revealed in the Holy Bible and not to any other god. Our Pledge of Allegiance which recites we are One Nation Under God and our U.S. Currency bearing the phrase, In God We Trust, are two examples of One God that was held by our Nations Founders to be our One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We are a Christian Nation.

God tells us in Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me.

Hindus worship many gods and goddesses in addition to Brahman, who is believed to be the supreme god force present in all things.

Americas religious freedom is based on true Christian values, not on any contradictory religious value system.

Because of all the uncertainty behind the motives and agenda of Zed, two local Lincoln County Churches, the Berean Baptist Church Pastor and the leader of the Bible Talk Ministries, along with several church members, attended the Commissioners meeting on January 4, 2021, and were also given the opportunity to offer their invocation and to devote their prayers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob after the invocation delivered by Rajan Zed. We are a Christian Nation and we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD who have enjoyed a multitude of blessings from God.

America will always need Gods blessings and assistance. He, and only He, must be made a vital part of everything we do then He will guide us because we will be working to accomplish HIS purpose.

Diane Bradshaw Panaca, Nevada

Visit link:

Letter to the Editor: Invocation in Commission Meeting - Lincoln County Record

Image for representational purpose only |Pic: Google Images

The Union Ministry of Education on Monday released an implementation plan for school education to achieve the goals and objectives laid down by the new National Education Policy 2020. It stated that the department has already initiated implementation of the NEP by undertaking a few activities in accordance with the recommendations of the policy. One of the most salient features includes the signing of an MoU between Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) and NCERT to develop an Indian Sign Language Dictionary for school education. This will ensure the availability of textbooks and other educational material for hearing-impaired children in sign language in all schools across the country.

The NEP entails that students acquire skills at a young age for effective development and thus it is essential to provide them with the suitable educational material as per their learning requirements. Until now, hearing-impaired children studied through the verbal or written medium in schools. With the MoU signed, these kids will now be able to study through a single medium Indian Sign Language which will, in turn, enhance their vocabulary at a tender age and capabilities to understand concepts better.

The Ministry's release also stated that as a part of the Central Board of Secondary Education's examination reforms, the board is set to "introduce an improvement examination from the year 2021 and will also introduce English and Sanskrit in two levels from the session 2021-22 (it already offers Mathematics and Hindi at two levels). Competency-based questions have been introduced in the Board exams for Class X and XII in a phased manner, increasing by 10 per cent every year." The CBSE board was already offering two levels of Mathematics and Hindi one comparatively easy and one advanced to reduce the stress levels of students. READ ALSO:Pokhriyal reviews work done under NEP 2020, recommends task force for proper implementation The release also spoke on E-learning being expanded through the DIKSHA platform. "DIKSHA provides access to a large number of curriculum-linked e-content through several solutions such as QR coded energised textbooks (ETBs), courses for teachers, quizzes etc. Till date, DIKSHA houses over 3600 QR coded textbooks (tagged with e-content) from 29 states, 1.44 lakh e contents and more than 300 courses," it read.

Since the policy has been designed for the next two decades, various recommendations stated in it have different timelines for implementation. This is why the policy would be implemented in a phased manner, the ministry said while announcing the next course of action regarding the NEP 2020 in its release.

Read more here:

Textbooks in Indian Sign Language, CBSE to bring in two levels for English and Sanskrit, as part of NEP - EdexLive

Bibek Debroy has translated the Bhagavad Gita and is well aware that most people have not read it thoroughly. Through the book he explains the text, dispelling myths along the way and taking the tone of a mentora tone which translates between the pages with the requisite personalisation.

He points out that the Gita is part of the Mahabharata and belongs to the smriti tradition of Sanskrit texts; a smriti text, he explains, is one that is handed down in writing and as a result may vary from generation to generation. Thus, nothing in the Bhagavad Gita is cast in stone.

Chapter by chapter, Debroy takes the reader on a voyage of exploration that includes Sanskrit grammar and the nuances of words and metre, covering the anustubh chhanda that became the seminal form of the shloka, though other variations also followed as poets found themselves requiring some creative liberty. He explains the shlokas that most people know, punctiliously setting them in their context and putting out that meanings can depend on whether the text is divorced from the main body of...

To read this piece, and more such stories in India's most exciting and exacting magazine, plus get access to our 25-year archives goldmine, please subscribe.

Read the rest here:

Karma, Akarma And Us - Outlook India

As per an official statement, the number of competency-based questions for the classes 10 and 12 students will be increased by 10 percent every year in phases, along with introducing improvement exams from 2021 onwards.

Photo Credits: (PTI)

The CBSE board exams are getting closer, day by day. CBSE will conduct the board exams from May 4, 2021, to June 10, 2021. Practical exams for the same will start from March 1, 2021, in the respective schools.

According to an official notification, CBSE will increase the number of competency-based questions by 10 percent for the students of classes 10 and 12. With this, the board will also introduce improvement exams from 2021 onwards.

Last year, CBSE introduced the MCQs or application-based questions. And, from this year, CBSE has decided to increase the number of MCQs. Further, the board has also reduced the syllabus by up to 30 percent for the 2020-2021 academic session for classes 9 to 12.

New National Program Framework ( NCF) fundamentals will be released and should be developed during the next academic session i.e. 2021-2022. The level of these MCQs are expected to be tougher in the exam

CBSE will provide more internal options in the question paper. As per information, these internal options in all sections have been increased by 33%.

CBSE will also offer Mathematics and Hindi in two levels to reduce stress for students, but for the academic year 2021-2022, they will introduce English and Sanskrit language papers in two levels.

The skill test will begin on March 1, giving students plenty of time to prepare. However, the council has yet to release the date sheet.

Read: Schools to reopen for classes 9 to 12 in Jammu divisions summer zone from February 1

Read: Maharashtra board exams 2021 to be held in April, May for classes 10 and 12

Read more here:

CBSE to increases number of competency-based questions by 10 percent - India Today

Your debut novel, The Illuminated (published by HarperCollins), is out this year. What is it about?

It is the story of two women, mother and daughter, who are forced to see the world anew in the wake of a personal tragedy. The husband/father figure, a renowned architect and an all-round giant of a man around whom their lives revolve, dies on page one.

The world the characters inhabit is changing rapidly. There is a rising tide of religious fundamentalism, among other things. The two women harbour very different world views and the novel attempts to explore these tensions.

The Illuminated is scheduled to be published in July so I dont want to give away too much but Id say its a novel about perception. When the light shifts, you see the world differently.

A lot of recent books by women, from Girl in White Cotton to These, Our Bodies, Possessed by Light, to Women, Dreaming have delved into fraught mother-daughter relationships with absent father figures. Why do you think this is so?

That is an interesting observation and its something Ive given a lot of thought to. Weve all grown up consuming the minutiae of the lives of middle-aged men as literature. Like the protagonist in The Sense of An Ending getting his trousers repaired or the inner dialogue of the protagonist in Desire to cite a few examples dont get me wrong, I love Julian Barnes and JM Coetzee. But thats been the dominant nature of literature for a while now, hasnt it? In the last few years, more and more South Asian writers are writing layered female characters. And when women begin to write about women, how can the mother-daughter relationship be far behind? Its the primary relationship a woman has with another woman.

However, my book is not about the mother-daughter relationship really but about how these two women, and several others around them, respond to the world around them. I doubt any novelist wants to be part of a trend. No one spends years of their life to cash in on a trend. It is simply a happy coincidence albeit a much delayed and welcome one.

As a debut author working with a literary agency, what would be your advice to aspiring writers? How has having an agent shaped your literary journey and how, in your opinion, is the publishing industry in India changing?

Im a big champion of getting yourself an agent. Even half a decade ago, the scene was very different domestically. You either got yourself an international agent or worked directly with a publisher. But now there are at least 8-10 Indian agencies if not more, so there are lots of options. I must confess, I often hear horror stories from my writing peers so its important to vet your agent and ensure you align on your vision. You want an agent who is in it to support your writing career not just making a quick commission off one book.

For me, I cant imagine the journey of this book without Hemali Sodhi of A Suitable Agency, which represents me in the Indian subcontinent. We were acquaintances but we got seriously talking at the Mountain Echoes festival in Bhutan in August 2019 and she became a champion of my book even before she knew she was going to start an agency. So when the time came for it, I followed my instincts and went with her.

In the book, Tara is a Sanskrit scholar while Shashi is immersed in philosophy. Having studied linguistics yourself, did that come into play while shaping these characters? What were the books you imagined your characters would be well acquainted with?

I have a Masters degree in linguistics but I never studied Sanskrit formally. An interest and immersion in both the poetry and mathematics of language is common to both. Since my characters are rather scholarly in their inclination, I decided to read everything I thought they would be reading. So for Tara, I read a lot of Bhartrhari and Bilhana and Kalidasa in translation she would be reading them in Sanskrit though. And for Shashi, Hegel and Sri Aurobindo. As a result, I hadnt caught up on new books in the last few years at all! Im reading them all now.

In what ways has your experience as a journalist and editor helped in developing your fiction?

It hasnt necessarily helped except that it taught me how to respect deadlines.

In fact, being an editor was often detrimental to drafting because I would constantly self edit. I frequently fantasized whether it would have been more pleasurable to write fiction had my day job not involved writing and editing. Like, if I was a banker or an architect, would I be welcoming the chance to work with words at the end of the day?

Fiction demands an entirely different approach and sometimes the rationality and urgency of journalistic writing can come in the way. I know its romantic to say I woke up at 4 am to write but my daytime attention had to be devoted to the jobs I held so I would write from midnight to 2 am whenever I could and through the day most weekends. That way, I had some sense of a shift from one to the other.

Im quite irritated by the impulses of journalism in the Twitter era, which is so much about a this or that culture, so much about virtue signalling and sparring with people who dont wholly align with you. I feel fiction has the opposite impulse, to inhabit characters without judgement.

You were also a Hawthornden Fellow. How did your experience at a writing residency shape your book and would you recommend the same for other first time writers?

Oh, it was a transformative experience. I always thought writing residencies were pretentious. Any writer knows that actual writing happens in your pajamas in solitude under extremely unglamorous circumstances. But Hawthornden was important for me; it completely upended my daily routine and forced me to look at everything differently. It was five of us and the administrator (who is a poet himself) and the cook (who is a cookbook author herself) isolated for a month in a medieval castle with poor internet and the rule of silence between 9 am-6 pm. You dont picture that kind of thing very often, do you? The castle grounds were stunning with deer and beautiful birds I couldnt name. I took long walks, long bubble baths, went to the local bar once a week to check the status of the magazine I edited, but I still managed to go from 50% to 90% of the novel in my time there. It was the most productive one month of a five year journey. I would very much recommend a residency if one has the opportunity and kind bosses whod give them leave.

How has the pandemic altered your reading and writing schedules?

I finished my first draft just weeks before the lockdown. It felt like a cruel joke because Id been desperately trying to carve out periods of isolation for the last couple of years, then I got done, and the whole world went into isolation. I felt like I had been in preparatory mode. As for right now, the diminished social life makes for good, uninterrupted reading time.

What would you wish to write on next? Any genres that you would like to experiment with in your next literary venture?

Im at the starting stages of my next work of fiction and also writing my first screenplay, which has been a whole new experience for me, exploring a different kind of skill set. It is a collaboration with two New York-based writers and an international producer and filming will begin mid year. Yes, Im looking forward to 2021.

Simar Bhasin is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.

See the original post here:

Interview: Anindita Ghose on her debut novel, The Illuminated - Hindustan Times

Mantra therapy for health, peace and protection

Published on: Sunday, January 17, 2021

By: Dr T Selva

Text Size:

Every individual should know the efficacy of mantras, as sound is the link between man and God.

Mantras create waves and the more times a mantra is chanted, the more powerful the wave it generates.

I was fortunate to be initiated into mantra therapy under a renowned Sanskrit scholar, Prof Dr R. Thiagarajan from Chennai, India. Learning the hymn under an expert is regarded as being blessed by divine forces.

ADVERTISEMENT

Anyone who wants to harness spiritual power should chant the sacred Sanskrit recitals.

This is because when a mantra is chanted, cosmic rhythm and order come into play and its vibrations bring tremendous benefits to the chanter.

In Vasthu Sastra, chanting mantras in a house is highly recommended because it removes negative entities and energises in the enclosed space. It is important to choose the correct chant so as to experience the desired benefits.

How do mantras work?

Mantras work directly upon our karma, the accumulated latencies and tendencies with which we are born.

The vibrations of these ancient formulas work through the chakras to increase the flow of beneficial energy throughout the subtle body, where our past inclinations are stored.

Mantra therapy starts by increasing the total amount of energy available for all of our activities.

Certain mantras, used singly or in combination, can greatly accelerate the quality and quantity of energy used in the healing process.

However, if the karmic inclination for a given condition is overwhelming, mantra therapy will not remove the difficulty any more than conventional therapy will.

In such a case, mantra therapy can lessen the karmic baggage an individual takes into his future lives.

The energy created through chanting mantras may lead a person to forms of therapy that are quite different from those used initially.

Thus, some unexpected new form of treatment may appear as the fruit of mantra practice.

ADVERTISEMENT

Spiritual guru Amma

Results from dedicated mantra practice can take time to manifest.

Minor difficulties might be cleared within two weeks, but more deeply rooted problems may take longer to solve.

A guru or spiritual leader like Mata Amritanandamayi better known as the hugging saint Amma should initiate the mantra process for an individual and if he or she gives a particular mantra to the follower, the latter must not share it with others.

Mantras should be chanted 108 times during each daily therapy session. Have the practice every day for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of 40 days.

The full 40-day chanting process produces the best results. For tougher problems, a 120-day programme is recommended. At the end of each session, the individual should stop daily chanting and take a break for at least one week.

Mantra is an invocation or a mystical formula that helps the person release the self and attain bliss and ultimate fulfilment. The sounds involved in a mantra are significant as they generate an unusual mystic power in the individual.

Mantras produce vibrations in the surrounding atmosphere and their force depend on the attitude of the chanter as well as the intensity of his concentration.

As mantras are performed through faith, their results cannot be analysed, measured, weighed, or seen.

The force of a mantra can be only felt thus it should be performed with complete faith and according to all the rituals.

The individual should know the meaning of the mantra he is reciting and follow the prescribed methods. He will then experience sensation and vibrations during or at the end of the mantra.

How and when to chant mantras?

ADVERTISEMENT

A person who chants aloud will see the effects faster than one who plays chants on an audio system. Observing a vegetarian diet is encouraged.

Besides the three transaction periods sunrise, mid-day and sunset the mantra can be sung anywhere in a house and at any hour of the day as long as the person feels he needs to connect to a higher energy level.

Such activities are ideal in the prayer room located in the north-east of the house, so that divinity can be felt easily. And all mantras should be chanted with the holy sound of Aum (pronounced as Om).

There are three ways to perform a mantra. The first is to do it very slowly so that nobody else can hear. There should only be lip movement.

The second way is in the heart, without any sound or lip movement.

And the final method is to recite the mantra in a low, medium or high tone.

The king of all mantras is the Gayatri mantra, which focuses on polishing the chanters intellect. It can be chanted any time of the day.

The science of mantra says that whatever sound comes out of the mouth is the outcome of the interaction of various organs such as the wind-pipe, tongue, teeth and lips.

The different parts of the mouth are interconnected with various parts of the body and chanting specific mantras can help in healing any ailing organ.

- Dr T. Selva is a speaker and author of the bestseller book Vasthu Sastra Guide. To get a copy contact 012-3299713. He can be contacted at [emailprotected] Facebook: Vasthu Sastra and Website: http://www.vasthusastra.com

Read the rest here:

Mantra therapy for health, peace and protection - Daily Express

Text Size: A- A+

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has initiated reforms in board exams in line with the new National Education Policy (NEP), and will introduce an improvement exam from the academic session 2021-22, the education ministry has said.

The improvement exam, which gives students an opportunity to improve their scores, will be a permanent feature from the coming academic session.

The board is also going to introduce two difficulty levels of question papers for English and Sanskrit subjects, similar to the ones that it currently offers for Mathematics, the ministry said.

There will be a tough and an easy version of all these subjects and students will be free to opt for the level they feel comfortable with.

CBSE will introduce improvement examination from the year 2021 and will introduce English and Sanskrit in 2 levels from the session 2021-22 (already offers Mathematics and Hindi at two levels), read the NEP action plan shared by the ministry Monday evening.

The action plan also mentioned that the board will ensure 10 per cent of the questions in Class 10 and 12 question papers are competency based. The idea is to decrease the burden on students and break away from rote learning.

Also read: CBSE practical exams from 1 March, schools want states to allow offline classes before that

Professor R. Govinda, former vice-chancellor, National University of Educational Planning and Administration, said the improvement exam is a good idea, but expressed concern over the increasing pressure to score that necessitated the move.

I think an improvement exam is a good idea, but we have to understand why it has been introduced in the first place it is because of the high stake board exams. Because we link the board exams to admission in colleges, students are naturally under pressure to score more and thus have a psychological pressure, he explained.

Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon Group of Schools, Delhi, also supported the idea of an improvement exam.

If the child has not been able to perform as per his/her expectations, a chance should be given. That is what a compassionate evaluation system is all about. We are talking about doing away from an examination system that appears to be punitive, so it has to be more with empathy and compassion and people should get chances to improve.

Sunita Salve, who teaches Class 12 students at a private school in Ahmedabad, also agreed that the exam would ease the pressure on students. I think if board students get another chance to improve their performance, they will be under less pressure.

According to the ministry note, bringing reforms in CBSE is one of the many areas in school education where the implementation of NEP has begun. These include the one year of Balvatika for children, which is the pre-school stage, being introduced in many states; introduction of the National Mission of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, meant to improve numeral literacy among students; as well as bag-less days, and internships for school students.

To achieve the goals and objectives of NEP 2020, the Department of School Education and Literacy has prepared a draft implementation plan with tasks linking each recommendation with tasks, responsible agencies to carry out the task, timelines and outputs, the note read.

The task list was shared with states in September last year.

Also read: Govt wants panel to study, mitigate impact of delayed board exams on college schedules in 2021

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram

Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it

India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.

But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.

ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.

Support Our Journalism

Continued here:

CBSE improvement exam for Class 10, 12 board students a permanent feature from this year - ThePrint

It's difficult to get a large group of chess players to agree on anything, and time controls are probably not the exception.Could the chess community come together, though, to select the best online time control from a short list of choices?

A while back, a Chess.com poll sought to answer this very question, and no single time control received more than 31 percent of the vote.

So let's add some totally subjective clarity to this question by ranking the options from worst to best. The criteria: solely my personal judgment.

Before we get started, a note on increments: They were not included in the poll options, and while they might be a good idea for super-grandmasters who've memorized complicated and esoteric endgames (like king-and-rook vs. king), I generally dislike them for online playbecause there is nothing sweeter than flagging your opponent in a hopeless position.

Two hours? I can't believe this is an option. It gives me a jolt of anxiety to even ponder the existence of a two-hour online time control.

Remember, chess time controls are for each side, so if you choose a two-hour game you could potentially be playing for four hours. Does your battery even last that long, or are you one of those aristocrats with plug-in chargers?

I choose to believe that the 10 percent of the Chess.com poll respondents who selected this option all misclicked. It's the only logical explanation.

Imagine you're playing such a game. You make a move and start watching reruns of The Office while your opponent thinks. You could potentially watch five full episodes before it's your move again. Sure, you were going to watch five Office reruns anyway, but that has nothing to do with chess.

This is a much more reasonable option if you want to play at a glacial pace. I don't think I've ever played a game this slowly, but I can see the appeal of having the luxury of deep analysis if one had the basic attention span necessary to perform it (clearly, I do not).

A 30-minute game will wrap up in an hour or less, which means you could play it on your lunch break if you don't mind eating at the same time.

With 30 minutes on your clock, you could even think about more than one candidate move as you play. I can only imagine that is a helpful thing.

This is a time control that isn't quite sure what it wants to be. It's pretty slow for blitz, but it's definitely still blitz. You're not likely to flag in a simple endgame, but you could find yourself in time trouble in a complicated middlegame.

Something just feels off about this time control. How quickly do you play the opening? Should you ever premove or even hover your pieces?

Listen, just because we have five fingers doesn't mean five minutes is a good time control for a chess game. I think this time control is much more suited to over-the-board blitz, where you have to toil mightily, moving physical pieces.

Save the five-minute games for the IRL tournament skittles room, once normal society resumes itself from the current apocalyptic hellscape.

Now this is an enjoyable online time control. You've got plenty of time to think, yet the game will conclude in no more than 20 minutes. It was the leading vote-getter in the poll, and it's not hard to understand why. 10-minute chess is just pleasant.

If you've made yourself a cup of coffee, this is the ideal game to sip and play. If you find your coffee growing cold, you've arrived at the endgame. That's probably in a chess textbook somewhere.

This is also a great time control for playing on mobile phones, where you don't really have to worry about if your opponent has the latest $200 laser gaming mouse to flag you. You could win byget thisactually playing better moves. It's a revolutionary concept, but it just might catch on.

True bullet chess. One minute. No increment. No fluff. No crying. Can you checkmate me in 60 seconds? Well, if you're GM Hikaru Nakamura, you definitely can.

But how many people reading this are Hikaru Nakamura? At most, one.

Traditionalists are eager to point out the degree of luck in one-minute chess, but luck is a strange word for what's really going on. Bullet chess combines not only tactics and strategy, but also speed, dexterity, daring and bluster.

The clock is as much a factor in bullet chess as the board and pieces. Would you rather be up 10 seconds in time or up a rook? I know what I'd prefer, and I am not telling you just in case we are ever matched in a bullet game together.

Besides, you can actually learn and improve your bullet chess skills. There is even a very helpful Chess.com video on how to flag your opponent.

This is the sweet spot for online chess. There's non-stop action, yet you have time to play a coherent game from start to finish.It's also one of the most liquid time control pools in online chess, so you just click that 3/0 button and within seconds you've got six minutes during which you don't have to think about your life. And isn't that what chess really is all about?

Three minutes seem designed for the game of online chess. You've got to move quickly, but you can't just make bad moves and hope to flag your opponent. That might work in bullet, but with three minutes, they'll figure out how to beat you.

Yet the beauty of three-minute chess is that a mistake isn't fatal. If you lose a pawn in a two-hour game, you might as well resign. But in three minutes, you can mount a comeback if you play sharp, aggressive, and strong moves.

Take a look at the Chess.com blitz leaderboard. Three-minute games are favored by the best players in the world, and for good reason.

The next time you start a game of three-minute chess, take a moment to savor the fact that you're playing the best possible online chess time control. But don't savor it too longafter all, you've got just three minutes.

Link:

What Is The Best Online Chess Time Control? - Chess.com

Chess became a source of inspiration in the arts in literature soon after the spread of the game to the Middle East and Europe in the Middle Ages. And it continues to command a formative impact on the arts today.

Chess creates a magical, imaginative narrative with powerful characters and drama, filled with great loss but also great triumphs. For centuries, artists have used chess as their muse to create paintings, sculptures and literature. Some have even created elaborate physical chess sets. Lets examine some of the most famous artists, pieces and chess integrations across genres:

But the influence chess has on art isnt a one-way street. Sometimes, its the other way around. Purling London, a British luxury game company critically acclaimed for its unique boards and artistic renderings, regularly collaborates with well-known artists including Sophie Matisse, Mr. Doodle, Inkie and Thierry Noir to create contemporary chess masterpieces.

While chess-art aficionados can peruse many of the great pieces in museums and in galleries across the world, perhaps one of the best national treasures is the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, which presents world-class exhibitions that explore the connection of chess to art, culture and history.

The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to building awareness of the cultural and artistic significance of chess. Housed in an historic 15,900 square-foot residence-turned-business, the WCHOF features World Chess Hall of Fame inductees, United States Chess Hall of Fame inductees selected by the U.S. Chess Trust, displays of artifacts from the permanent collection and exhibitions highlighting the great players, historic games and rich cultural history of chess.

Originally posted here:

On Chess: Chess And The Arts - St. Louis Public Radio

NOTE: Chess.com has now reverted all ratingadjustments referred to in this announcement. We appreciate all of the community feedback and are considering it carefully going forward

Today, Chess.com made two significant changes to our Daily Chess rating system. First,all Daily Chess Standard ratings above 1500 have been increased by different amounts. Second, all Daily960 ratings above 1300 have been increased by different amounts.

After lots of statistical analysis of our Daily Chess ratings and comparisons to our other ratings, we have determined that increasing the ratings for players in specific ranges is the best way to achieve more accurate ratings for players in these rating pools. This change will bring the average Daily Chess rating on Chess.com in line with current Blitz Chess ratings on site.

Here is an exact breakdown of how ratings will be adjusted.

Daily Chess Rating Adjustment

Daily960 Rating Adjustment

*NOTE: If you don't see these rating updates yet, please be patient. It should process for you in the next day or two.

See the article here:

Daily Chess Ratings And Daily960 Ratings Adjusted - Chess.com