|
| Our latest glimpse of the red planet. PHOTO: Reuters |
|
|
|
- NASA landed its new InSight probe on Mars
- A rogue doctor announced the birth of the first gene-edited children
- The UN found that home is the 'most dangerous' place for women
- The BoE reported Britain will be worse off in every Brexit scenario
-
Shell and Eni denied Nigeria $6bn in a corrupt oil deal
- An antitrust suit against Apple won support on the Supreme Court
- Taiwan's ruling DPP party suffered a stinging loss
- Mexico's new left-leaning president rattled markets
- Bomb and gun attacks targeted Western forces in Afghanistan
- Paul Manafort was again accused of lying under oath
|
|
|
|
Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana at the start of the first of 12 world championship games. Photograph: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for World Chess
|
|
It's safe to say that ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus don't have a great deal in common with the Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. Apart from chess, that is. The game's timeless, obsessive quality is the invisible skein that binds together thinkers, strategists and yes, Swedish pop icons. And this week we witnessed that the 1,500-year-old game still has plenty of good moves left.
The big dance
The 2018 World Chess Championship has been fought to a stirring conclusion in London. It was a best-of-12 affair with €1m in prize money on the table, and the most important bragging rights in the sport. It was a titanic affair; the second-ranked player Fabiano Caruana vying against the first, Magnus Carlsen. A bold young challenger taking on an arguably-faultless champion. Not since the swashbuckling days of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov has the decider been fought between the two best players on the planet.
The title-holder
The 28-year-old Carlsen has been dubbed 'Thor' by his legion of fans. While he doesn't wield Mjölnir, he does have the ability to hammer opponents with his lightning-fast abilities. The boy from Tornberg learned chess at his father's knee at the tender age of five. He became a Grandmaster - a title awarded to the best players in the world - at the age of 14. And if you were to assume that such a meteoric rise must have been accompanied by a genius IQ and a good deal of self-confidence you'd be correct. Carlsen is rumoured to have an IQ of 190, and he models for G-Star Raw among others. He has even cameoed as himself on The Simpsons. In other words, he is the closest thing to 'cool' in the modern chess world. In 2013, at the age of 23, Carlsen snatched the World Championship from India's legendary Viswanathan Anand, and has held it ever since.
During Carlsen's teenage years his style was energetic - if not aggressive - but time has smoothed those rough edges. Maturity has afforded him a level of flexibility that defies computer analysis; he can win from any number of starting moves.
The challenger
America has been searching for a Chess World Champion since Bobby Fischer's 1972-1975 reign. Every few years a promising bright spark is discovered and acclaimed as Fischer's heir, but none as yet have lived up to the moniker. 'Fabi' Caruana may be the one.
The Miami-born, Brooklyn-raised Caruana may at first seem like many other 27-year-olds: he enjoys Game of Thrones, David Lynch's surrealist masterpieces and the odd bit of 90's hip hop. But then there is chess. Caruana showed flair for the sport from a very young age (he was just 10 when he beat his first Grand Master). Moreover, for him it's not just a sport - it's his life's work. Caruana left school in seventh grade to focus on the game.
He plays with fearless vigour, a trait he shares with the great Fischer. It's rumoured that the plucky American is being coached by a trio of grandmasters; Leinier Dominguez, Alejandro Ramirez and Ioan-Cristian Chirila.
War, writ small
The battleground where chess champions fight is a dark, soundproofed cube of one-way glass. There are few props as this is truly a game of the mind: no luck, only skill. And as any chess fanatic will tell you, there are more possible moves in this game than there are atoms in the universe.
Carlsen entered the competition in a form slump and the first evening itself showed signs of a possible upset. The reigning champion's opening 34 moves were irrepressible, but he lost focus during the mid-game. Caruana parried attack after attack - clearly frustrating his opponent - and over the course of seven hours and 115 moves a draw was called. Carlsen was dark; Caruana hopeful.
The second game likewise was fought to a draw, as was the third. And the fourth. There was little separating the two bulls. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth games too were tied. Crowds were fascinated by this duel: neither one was giving up an inch. Caruana did his best to remain inscrutable even as Carlsen's frustration grew palpable. Three more draws, and then the final round. Another draw. For the first time in World Chess Championship history the entire 12-game competition was drawn.
Armageddon
In this most-unlikely event the rules stipulated that a four-game round would be played in the Rapid format. After a combined 773 moves made over 51 hours, it came down to a test of speed and precision.
Carlsen obliterated Caruana 3-0.
And so once again Carlsen has retained his trophy, and (for now at least) the challenge from Caruana has been seen off. But these two young men will no doubt be battling one another for many years to come. And that's an exciting prospect for all of us.
|
|
|
| Russian jets fly low over their newly-built bridge. PHOTO: Evening Standard |
|
|
Old tactics, new war
Thermopylae, Stamford Bridge, Stirling Bridge, Agincourt. To force one's enemies into a chokepoint, or bottleneck, is the dream of military tacticians everywhere. And the Kerch Strait is a dream come true for Moscow.
The Crimean Peninsula was once the rock on which Ukraine's naval defence was built. Unfortunately for Kiev, Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. Under Russian arms the entire peninsula is a glaring vulnerability and impediment. Indeed, its easternmost point at Kerch falls just short of the Russian mainland, forming a natural bottleneck between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
As such, we can understand the haste with which Russia has built a bridge over the Kerch Strait to its newly acquired (or reacquired, depending on who you ask) possession in Crimea. Having bisected Ukraine's coastline, Russian forces now control who can or can't enter the ports at Mariupol and Berdyansk.
This week we saw that strategy in motion: three Ukrainian naval vessels attempting to enter the Sea of Azov were rammed and seized by Russian border guards. The ineffectual government in Kiev declared martial law and pleaded for a NATO intervention that will not materialise. Donald Trump cancelled his meeting with Vladimir Putin at today's G20 summit but that's just about the extent of what will be done. Crimea and its surrounding waterways are firmly in Russian hands now, and we would do well to remember the fate of armies who've tried to fight their way out of a bottleneck.
|
|
|
| Receding coastlines, burning hinterlands. PHOTO: Josh Edelson / AFP |
|
|
America shrugged
The phrase 'climate change' is used so frequently in modern discourse that a semantic callous has formed around it. People simply glide over it, absorbing one alarming statistic after another without ever adding weight, or texture to it. We've become desensitised. That may be because the statistics have a certain repetitive quality. Reports last year proclaimed that 19 of the warmest years on record had occurred in the preceding 21. Now, 20 of the hottest years have been in the last 22. And it will come as no surprise to people in Kuwait, or Malibu, that 2018 will likely be the fourth-hottest year ever recorded.
Each year United Nations representatives gather to discuss climate change. This year's COP24 summit gets under way next week in Poland. And the news is deeply unsettling: the world has fallen drastically behind on commitments made in Paris a scant three years ago. And the only way we can now meet the Paris Agreement is by tripling the commitments already made - and sticking to them. New projections show that by the end of the century America will be a much-diminished nation, having surrendered huge swaths of its coastline to the rising tide. Millions, perhaps tens of millions, will be forced to migrate inland.
And still, the current political and economic climate in the US suggests that action will not be forthcoming. Indeed, until the man behind the Resolute Desk starts to believe in climate change, it's unlikely that the world at large will take the action necessary to preserve our children's future.
|
|
|
| Bertolucci on set in the Forbidden City. PHOTO: AP |
|
|
|
|
|
A giant passes
Bernardo Bertolucci died this week aged 77. He ranks amongst the greatest Italian directors, a man who could scandalise and enchant with equal measure. 'Last Tango In Paris' is an unwavering study of sexuality and power; it proved too much for censors in 1972. 'The Last Emperor' won Bertolucci considerable acclaim (not to mention 9 Oscars). And of course his social realist '1900' - a five-hour epic - traverses and interrogates the first half of the 20th century in Italy. There is sorrow and loss in his death, but there is also pleasure in remembering and spreading his art. Do yourself a favour and watch one of them this weekend.
The terminal
Hassan al-Kontar has spent the last seven months of his life living inside the international terminal of Kuala Lumpur airport. The Syrian refugee has spent years of his life avoiding his home country - he would be arrested at the airport and forced into military service. Marooned in KL (attempts to travel to Ecuador and Cambodia were fruitless), al-Kontar survived on the kindness of strangers and donated food. He documented his plight on social media and eventually found supporters in a Canadian human rights group. After months of lobbying they secured refugee status for al-Kontar and he arrived in Canada mid-week.
|
|
|
| What remains of Lion Air Flight 610. PHOTO: Bloomberg |
|
|
|
|
|
More questions than answers
Investigators have released a preliminary report into the tragic set of events that led to an Indonesian passenger jet ditching into the sea just 13 minutes after take-off. It's not easy reading. An automated safety mechanism misfired catastrophically on the flight, with onboard computers edging the planes nose lower and lower to avoid stalling - even though that was never in danger of happening. The pilots fought against the wayward, downward aircraft, to no avail. 189 lives were lost and we are left with questions concerning Lion Air's safety procedures, about Boeing's technology, and about our ever-increasing reliance on systems rather than people.
Swings and roundabouts
This week ISIS fighters launched an offensive to break out of their narrow pocket near Deir ez-Zor. As has been the case for years it was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces who absorbed the brunt of the attack. Several days of fierce fighting along the their containment lines left 24 SDF fighters dead. Meanwhile, Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening an invasion of the Kurdish territories within Syria. It's difficult to see how the SDF will be able to do the West's dirty work in Deir ez-Zor while also avoiding ethnic cleansing at the hands of Turkish-backed militias.
|
|
Quote of the week
"The first billion years of our universe's history are a very interesting epoch that has not yet been probed by current satellites. Our measurement allows us to peek inside it. Perhaps one day we will find a way to look all the way back to the Big Bang. This is our ultimate goal." - Astrophysicist Marco Ajello, fresh from calculating all the starlight that has ever existed in the universe, sets himself loftier goals
Headline of the week
Arizona wildfire that cost $8.2 million to extinguish caused by explosion at gender-reveal party - The Independent
Featured long-reads from inkl publishers:
If you don't have an inkl membership as yet, please get one now. It'll unlock all the stories linked in this issue and 150,000 more each month. You can get 30 days of real and trusted news, wrapped up in one of the world's best news apps, for just 99 cents.
|
|
|
|
|
