I'm adding this to my list of favorite chess quotes.

manuel fernando ramirez

me apasiona jugar y me entretiene me gustaria avanzar y que me consideraran maestro mi apertura favorita es ruy lopez y capablanca me gusta como jugaba

Bogota Colombia

Member since April 21, 2020

Translation:

I am passionate about playing and it entertains me. I would like to advance and be considered a teacher. 

My favorite opening is Ruy Lopez. Capablanca, I like how he played.

https://lichess.org/@/mafer2605

Billions of gullible morons think there is a god creature hiding somewhere in the universe and the thing magically makes stuff happen. Imagine the stupidity required to believe in this childish bullshit.

Magnus Carlsen was only 13 years old he was able to get a draw against Kasparov who used to be the World Chess champion.

"Brazil recently surpassed 500,000 official Covid deaths, the world’s second-highest total behind the U.S."

June 29, 2021

An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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By Jonathan Wolfe and Amelia Nierenberg

Concerns over the Delta variant have triggered lockdowns in Asian and Pacific countries. Los Angeles County strongly recommended that everyone wear masks indoors as a precaution against the Delta variant. As the Northwest broils, officials have prioritized cooling off over Covid precautions. Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.

Brazil’s persistent struggles

Brazil recently surpassed 500,000 official Covid deaths, the world’s second-highest total behind the U.S. About 1 in every 400 Brazilians has died from the virus, but many experts believe the true death toll may be higher. The virus situation there is not easing, with an average of nearly 70,000 new cases per day.

To learn more, we spoke to Ernesto Londoño, The Times’s Brazil bureau chief.

The last time we spoke was mid-April, when Brazil’s average death toll was the highest in the world. What’s happened since then?

March and April were the peak months in terms of the hospital system coming under enormous strain. Since then, the number of daily infections and the number of deaths remains staggeringly high. We’re talking about daily death tolls that have ranged from 1,500 to 2,500. So lower than the peak period we saw earlier this year where you were exceeding 4,000 deaths a day, but clearly, we’re still very much in the grip of a raging outbreak.

The New York Times

What’s the latest on the variants?

There was a consensus that the Gamma variant vastly accelerated contagion earlier this year, and it played a pivotal role in pushing Brazil’s health system to the brink of collapse. There have been a number of cases that have been conclusively traced to the Delta variant in a few parts of the country, but Brazil doesn’t have the capacity, or the political will, to have a far more aggressive sequencing program. So by the time we have the first glimmers of where the variants are changing the dynamics of the virus, it’s too late to do something about it.

The New York Times

How is the vaccination campaign?

It’s ramping up, but it’s still very slow and it’s still very disorganized. About a third of the population has received at least one dose, and less than 12 percent are fully vaccinated.

There’s also an interesting phenomenon happening in that people are being choosy about which vaccine they want. So Brazilians show up to vaccine locations, and when they learn that the only vaccine on offer is the Chinese vaccine, many have just been taking a pass and seeing if they can find a different vaccine later on. There are also millions of Brazilians who are not getting their second vaccine doses.

What’s daily life like?

What I see when I ride my bike around town, or do my reporting, is a striking sense of business as usual. Public transportation is jam-packed — people in buses are pressed together like sardines, commuting to work. Restaurants are doing very good business in many parts of Rio, where I live, and people are walking around without masks. So, I think for a large share of the population, there’s just kind of a sense that the pandemic is over, or at the very least, they’re not going to let it interrupt their daily lives.

How’s the political situation?

Heated. There is a growing confrontation between the government and the opposition, which has taken steps in the past few weeks to try to take President Bolsonaro and his cabinet to task for their handling of the pandemic. There’s been a special committee in Congress investigating the government’s response, and that has really increased the political polarization.

And I’m increasingly seeing people become angry and disgusted enough by the status quo that they’re willing to take to the streets. This coming Saturday, we’ll have the third round of street protests we’ve seen in recent weeks. And unlike other protests in the past in Brazil, which have tended to have sort of festive flair, there’s a real sense of rage in these latest protests. The term that many demonstrators have rallied around to criticize their president is “genocide,” which is obviously a very loaded term, but it gives you a sense of just how angry people are and how wronged they feel by their government.

What’s next for eating outside?

The pergolas at Casa La Femme in the West Village.Clay Williams for The New York Times

As life begins to return to normal in New York City, officials and businesses are trying to figure out the future of outdoor dining.

Outdoor structures were a big hit during the pandemic, as thousands of restaurants got quick clearance to set up tables on streets and sidewalks. Now, the city government is working on the complicated process of making the initiative permanent.

The Times restaurant critic Pete Wells offered up suggestions for city planners, nonprofit organizations and architects planning the third wave of outdoor meals.

“Thoughtful regulations can ensure that the exuberant and life-affirming creativity of the past year will continue; overly strict ones could enforce a numbing sameness,” he wrote.

Pete recommends the city institute low or sliding fees and simple forms for permits to keep it accessible for all restaurants.

Restaurants, Pete wrote, are “already skilled at creating private environments that make paying customers feel lucky to be inside their four walls. Now they need to create environments that make noncustomers feel lucky to be their neighbors.”

Vaccine rollout

At-home rapid virus tests may still be useful for vaccinated people worried about sniffles, possible exposures or visits with vulnerable loved ones. The rich and famous will have to show their vaccine cards when they travel to Sun Valley, Idaho, for an event known as the “summer camp for billionaires,” Joe Pompeo reports in Vanity Fair. The African Union is pushing the European Union to amend its digital travel pass to include Covishield, a vaccine used in many low-income countries. In Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E. capital, unvaccinated residents older than 15 will not be able to access most public places after Aug. 20. The U.S. will start sending millions of doses to Peru, Pakistan and Honduras.

See how the vaccine rollout is going in your county and state.

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What else we’re following

Several key products whose prices soared in the spring have grown less expensive, as producers have increased output and buyers have held tight. Canada is still mostly closed to Americans. Here’s why. Britain offered a narrow exemption to its quarantine rules for business travelers “bringing significant economic benefit.” United Airlines is rapidly expanding its fleet to keep up with rebounding travel. New York City landlords are enticing office tenants with lower rents, and even a speakeasy. New York’s first post-pandemic fashion show tells a story of re-emergence.

What you’re doing

The last 15 months have been a battle as we chose to follow C.D.C. guidelines despite Alabama’s disregard for the pandemic. We’ve lost friends, felt isolated from our religious congregation, and have learned to ignore the stares and ridicule for our mask-wearing choices. It’s been tough on all of us but especially our kids. School starts in August and I am sending my kids back because they’re behind, they’ve become a bit agoraphobic, and they crave socializing and learning in a classroom. Yet I know this year no one will be wearing masks. I am praying the vaccine gets approved for children 5 to 11. This constant anxiety for my children’s safety has been exhausting and lonely. — Jennifer Waldo-Speth, Alabaster, Ala.

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 26, 2002. I recommend clicking the Label "Pearls Before Swine".

The Washington Post. Coronavirus Updates.

Important developments in the pandemic.

By Ben Guarino with Lindsey Bever  Email The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.   The latest The more people on the planet who are vaccinated, the better protected we all are. Not only will communities be defended against spread locally, but high vaccination rates will hinder the ability of the coronavirus to evolve into new variants that may travel the globe. But, as reporter David J. Lynch notes, the world is largely without a plan to vaccinate roughly half the population, which lives outside the richest countries where vaccine supplies are abundant. “The virus is still raging across the planet, and we don’t have the vaccines. This is the greatest priority right now,” said Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Program. Like many mothers, Ana Diaz Guzman stopped working last year. And, like many mothers, the 43-year-old single mom from Silver Spring, Md., had struggled to find work as the economy reopened. Guzman was able to secure employment ― but only for a few weeks. Many women who left the workforce amid the pandemic, especially those who are Black and Latina, have not had success in returning to work. A concerned Australian citizen called a crime hotline to report Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was not wearing a mask when he entered a gas station. Joyce received a fine equivalent to about $150 in U.S. dollars. Australia's leaders have issued stronger restrictions in recent days as the delta variant spreads among residents, many of whom are unvaccinated. United Airlines' fleet of planes is being enlarged with a new order for 270 aircraft, which includes 200 Boeing Max and 70 Airbus passenger jets. The expansion of United's airplane fleet, and similar expansions by U.S. aviation companies, is a sign the industry has bet on a post-pandemic travel boom. The Wimbledon tennis tournament returned in England after last year's hiatus – a cancellation that had not occurred since World War II. Wimbledon spectators gave a round of thunderous applause for attendees who included health-care workers, clinical researchers and Oxford University professor Sarah Gilbert, one of the designers of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In a concession to the pandemic, fan numbers at the court will be capped at 50 percent – except for the tournament's fully open final two days. Other important news The pandemic's disruption caused these women to move back in with their parents. Some women flourished. Others cherished the time with their folks. A few described strained relationships. Americans who have not yet been vaccinated require incentives beyond fear, according to an analysis by a team of political scientists: Beer, raffles and, yes, chances to win money work well as positive reinforcements. And here's another tactic health officials are using to boost vaccinations – incentives not only for the person getting the shot but for a helper who tags along, too. In D.C., a friend, relative or other person who assists in making a vaccine appointment is eligible for a $51 Visa gift card. Correction: In Tuesday's newsletter, we incorrectly said Israel did not revive its indoor mask mandate. In fact, this has been reinstated with the emergence of the delta variant, although Israel has not ordered lockdowns or other severe restrictions.   Guide to the pandemic Track confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world. U.S. vaccine distribution and delivery, tracked by state. Guides: Finding vaccine appointments | Vaccines | Variants | Masks Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter.    Your questions, answered “What does it mean for a vaccine to be 90 percent effective? Does it mean that for 90 percent of fully vaccinated persons, the vaccine is ‘effective’ and for the other 10 percent, the vaccine doesn't really work at resisting the virus? Or does it mean that if I am fully vaccinated, my body will resist 90 percent of the exposures I experience and be susceptible to the other 10 percent? In other words, in the clinical trials, did 10 percent of the subjects develop symptoms, or did each subject develop symptoms after 10 percent of their exposures?” —JoAnn in Pennsylvania Let’s start with the difference between efficacy and effectiveness. Efficacy refers to how the vaccines performed in controlled settings, such as clinical trials. As we know, in the U.S. trials, the messenger RNA vaccines — Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — showed 95 and 94 percent efficacy, respectively, at preventing covid-19. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, an adenovirus vector vaccine, demonstrated 66 percent efficacy at preventing infection. Effectiveness refers to how well the vaccines perform in real life. These numbers are more applicable, obviously. They're also usually a bit lower because the number of people getting vaccinated — and the number of outside factors, including underlying health issues — is going to be higher. In one real-world study, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were shown to be 80 percent effective at preventing infection after one dose of the two-dose series and 90 percent effective after the second dose.  This seems to be the statistic you’re citing in your question, so let us answer it: When a vaccine is said to be 90 percent effective, that means the risk of an average, fully vaccinated person contracting the virus is reduced by 90 percent. So, in essence, there is still a 10 percent chance that person could get infected. However, it is important to note that these numbers are variable and can be influenced by a number of factors, including the nature of exposure to the virus, how strong a person’s immune system is and whether that person has any preexisting health conditions. Variants, such as the highly contagious delta variant, could also affect vaccine effectiveness. There’s really no way to know how effective any of the vaccines will be for you. All you can do is get vaccinated, knowing that even though there is no perfect vaccine, the coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration do a great job of protecting people against the virus, particularly against severe illness, hospitalization and death.   Today’s top reads Find more stories, analysis and op-eds about the pandemic on our coronavirus page. Covid-19 has gotten a helicopter generation of teens to embrace work. Just in time. Perspective ●  By Petula Dvorak ●  Read more »   AIDS disappeared from public view without ending. Will covid-19 do the same? Perspective ●  By Dan Royles ●  Read more »   I went to Las Vegas to test whether I was really ready for life on the other side of the pandemic Perspective ●  By T.M. Shine ●  Read more »