The De Kring art society in Amsterdam hosted the closing ceremony of the Max Euwe Memorial on November 20th. I played against three nude opponents as the prize-giving commenced. In addition to referencing Marcel Duchamp, the striking visuals showed two important themes. Firstly, it was a humorous take on the many tourists who come to Amsterdam for sex and drugs. Here we had a show that was only sexual on the surface but at heart cerebral. Secondly, it played off the general theme of simultaneous exhibitions, which are so common in the chess world. The master or grandmaster giving the simul is in a position of power and by defeating numerous opponents at once, the public and the media is informed of her dominance.

More photos are on the official site–the piece was also featured in the Amsterdam Daily “Het Parool” and inspired the following drawing by Edgar Jansen.

Short Stacked Shamus of Hard Boiled Poker wrote a blog on strip poker and art about a recent installation in New York, “I’ll Raise You Once” by Zefrey Throwell. Shamus also touched on naked chess:

The strip poker piece reminds me of a similar but more interesting work, a short film titled “Naked” in which poker pro and chess champ Jennifer Shahade plays chess against a nude male amateur, Jason Bretz. That piece plays off of a famous photo of Marcel Duchamp (a big influence on the Fluxus crowd), reversing the roles of the man and woman to make a comment on the relationship of the sexes.

Naked Checkmate from Poker Fairy Tale on Vimeo.

The Max Euwe Memorial tournament itself was also very exciting, featuring a combination of veterans, strong young players and inspiring female players such as Pia Cramling, one of the first women to earn the Grandmaster title. Find more information on the event on the official website which also features more details on my other appearances in Amsterdam and the closing ceremony.

Crowning the exciting chess week in Saint Louis was the unveiling of the chess Merit badge for the Boy Scouts. With over a million scouts across the US, I really believe this could push chess over the tipping point. Play Like a Girl was mentioned in a recent BBC article about glass ceilings yet to be shattered, and I hope the Girl Scouts will take the cue and start chessing as well!

I’m also staying pretty active in poker. Recent articles for PokerStars Women include an interview with Canadian pro Xuan Liu and a feature on women of the Big Game. (which happens to be my all-time favorite poker TV show.) I also contributed a photo essay to Woman Poker Player about PokerFairyTale. Finally, The Grindettes have a new facebook and twitter page so please follow both!

Sadly, since Black Friday I haven’t been able to play much internet poker, though I did win an online MTT. Tomorrow I’m off to the Borgata for a few events in conjunction with the WPT event there. It looks like I’ll also be doing some guest work for the Borgata Poker Blog, so keep your eyes open for my writing and my chip counts

Enjoy my favorite season!

Goldilocks from Poker Fairy Tale on Vimeo.

Even though I’m hardly a make-up fiend, I was able to find 70% of the pieces in mostly abandoned make-up bags and vanity drawers.

Finding sixteen of one item was the main problem, but lipstick was the clear aesthetic and conceptual choice. A thirty dollar Chanel lipstick, purchased because I cannot afford anything else Chanel, co-mingled with one buck steals at the drugstore bargain bin. A pawn is still just a pawn.

Enjoy some stills from the shoot and pick up a copy of the book on 9queens.org, amazon, Mongoosepress or USCF Sales.

Check out some photos of the event below by Shannon Bailey of the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum and add the World Chess Museum on facebook for more. Also coming soon to uschess.org/clo is “Grandmasters Sundancing” a piece on the trip by three-time US Chess Champion Joel Benjamin.

The beautiful Sundance setting

At the reception

Promoting chess at Sundance

WIM Iryna Zenyuk, GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Joel Benjamin and me

Alexander Shabalov teaching a young Utah chess player.

Because I play in so many Multi-table poker tournaments (MTTs) I have a good sense of the luck and skill required to go deep in a field with thousands of contestants. Funnily enough, the day prior to the shortlist announcement I made the money at a NL Hold Em World Championship of Online Poker event (WCOOP) on pokerstars. I grinded the Sunday away, sadly missing a South Philly street fair outside my house, with drinks, dancing, sausage sandwiches and lemonade and carnival games. But when the bubble burst, I was happy to be indoors on a gorgeous day. Out of almost 10,000 players I ended in 514th place for a decent cash. Still, the 280K first prize was many dreams and coinflips away.

If only the Guggenheim gallery morphed into a cardroom to determine the YouTube Play finalists! I could I face my artist, musician and game designer opponents in either six max Sit and Gos (the winner of each six person poker tournament would advance to the top 20), a regular Multi-Table satellite or even a Heads-up Knockout. To be honest, I don’t think the Guggenheim jury intends to decide it heads-up, since they only picked 125 videos, and the round one heads-up brackets would need 128 artists. Well… a few videos, such as hulachess, could be seeded into round two

See a few of my other favorites below. In other words, I hope these aren’t seated to my left.

Congrats also to co-creator Daniel Meirom, dancer & choreographer Gabrielle Revlock and Director of Photography Blake Eichenseer. For more press on the 1st Guggenheim YouTube Play Biennial, see mashable, flavorwire, the Huffington Post, and Alexandra Kosteniuk’s chessblog.com. Also thanks to Samara O’Shea for letting me and Daniel know about the contest, and for a nice post about hulachess on letterlover.net.

I wrote an in-depth Chess Life Online blog on the G-Star event and Daniel and I made two chess scoop videos atop the Cooper Square Hotel.

Well, rules are meant to be broken, and I’m really excited about editing and eventually showing this piece. Goldilocks vs. the three bears. Place your bets now.