Madeleine van Biljon

Madeleine van Biljon (81) sterf
2010-02-24 13:19
BEELD-nuus
Nurene Jassiem
Kaapstad. – Die joernalis, kos­kenner en skrywer Madeleine van Biljon (81) is gisteraand oorlede.


Sy het die laaste paar jaar in die Murambi-huis in Wynberg gewoon.


Volgens een van haar susters, die skrywer en resensent Cecile Cilliers, wat die kykNET-program Boeksusters vroeër saam met haar aangebied het, het Van Biljon “maklik gesterf met al haar kinders om haar”.


“Ons was vier kinders en Madeleine was die oudste.


“Sy is die eerste een wat sterf en dit is ’n swaar verlies om so ’n belangrike mens in ons lewens te verloor. Sy was tot op die einde so ’n ‘vibrant’ mens,” het Cilliers gesê.


Volgens een van Van Biljon se dogters, me. Mapula Swanepoel, het haar ma tot die einde nog haar mure bedek met haar jare lange kunstenaarsvriend Robert Hodgins se skilderye.


Swanepoel, ook ’n bekende in koskringe, het haar ma as ’n “absoluut positiewe mens” beskryf.


“Ons was ontsaglik lief vir haar en dit wat ons weet, het ons by haar geleer. My ma het altyd gelag en was ’n fantastiese mens om te kon ken.”


Van Biljon is in Lichtenburg gebore en was onder meer tussen 1983 en 1984 president van die Kaapstadse Persklub.


Sy het jare lank ’n kosrubriek in die Sunday Times behartig.


In 2008 het sy in ’n onderhoud met Die Burger gesê: “As jy weet hoeveel ek al geskryf het in my lewe: miljoene woorde.
Liewe vader! Dis ’n lang loopbaan.”


Sy word ook oorleef deur haar dogter Madeleine Roux en seun Willem van Biljon

Another

In this game - I played white - which I finished on chess.com [one of my favourite sites - the other Chesscube.com] was an easy win, but I had to sacrifice my Rook in order to win. This guy couldn't handle the fact that he was losing, so he started using foul language in such a way that I had to disable chat! Eish! Some men can't handle it when losing to a woman!
Hierdie spel het ek teen 'n gemorsie van Afghanistan gespeel. Die ou het sommer - toe hy agterkom hy verloor - begin vloek en lelik praat - woordeskat het sommer laag onder die belt begin daal, soveel so dat ek die "chat" gediskonnekteer het sodat ek nie sy gemors hoef te gelees het nie. Tipies daardie soort [van daardie lande af] Ek het onlangs teen 'n ou van Romenie gespeel en die ou het ook sommer kras begin raak. Goeie genade, kan hierdie ouens nie 'n skaakspel hanteer nie...of wat?

A Game for Two

STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS presents NIKIFOROS VLASSIS, VASSILIKI VLACHOU "A GAME FOR TWO" Director of Photography PENY KAFIRA Sound Recordist TEO BABOURIS Editor PANOS ANESTIS Sound Designers ANDREAS SPANOS, PANOS ANESTIS, GEORGE CHRYSAFAKIS Art Director STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS Costumes by SOFI IOANNIDOU, RENATA KONSTANTINOU Produced by STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS Written and Directed by STELIOS KOUKOUVITAKIS


Synopsis


Victoria, a chess champion, enters Argiris’ bookstore.
A flirt begins. In post – feminist era, the roles of the hunter and the prey constantly change.


Is winning all that matters?


FESTIVAL SCREENINGS


42nd Houston Worldfest International Film Festival (2009)- PLATINUM REMI AWARD
6th Naoussa International Film Festival (2009)
4th Crashfest (2009)
1st London Greek Film Festival (2008)
Platforma Video8 International Digital Film Festival (2008)- OFFICIAL SELECTION, COMPETITION (top20 films internationally)
21st Panorama of European Cinema – Student Section (2008)
2nd Aza Digital Film Festival (2008)


Video here

Lame Excuses - who's next?

The Queen is being asked to grant a royal pardon to Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a soldier executed by a British firing squad for the murder of prisoners in the last days of the Boer War.




Somerset-born Morant – the subject of the film Breaker Morant starring Edward Woodward – sailed to Australia in 1883 at the age of 19 and became a skilled horsebreaker.


He was among thousands of men from Australia who volunteered to fight against Dutch settlers in South Africa. In 1902 he was convicted at a court martial of murdering 12 Boer prisoners.


During a savage guerilla campaign, when numerous atrocities were committed by both sides, Morant is said to have intercepted a group of eight prisoners being brought in for questioning. He ordered them to be shot at the side of the road.


Later other Boers who had waved a white flag of surrender were also disarmed and shot under Morant's command.


Now a petition has been sent to Australia’s Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, by military lawyer James Unkles, who claims shooting prisoners was Army policy and Morant and codefendant Peter Handcock should be pardoned.


He claims Lord Kitchener, the British commander, ignored recommendations for mercy because he wanted the pair shot to discredit claims he had ordered the execution of prisoners to speed up peace talks with the Boers and appease Germany, which was considering entering the war. --- read the complete article HERE and another in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Shall we - or shall we not...no...we shall not! I agree with Derek from Durham saying the following in the comments on the first link - link of the Mail Online.
"Sounds to me he commited war crimes then and by any stretch of the imagination would have been founld guilty then and at any time since.



A war crime is a war crime in no matter what era or by any country .


What next shall we pardon members of the SS, or maybe even Goering or Rudolf Höss the Commandant of Auschwitz,


I was just carrying orders , mmmm sounds a lame excuse sure the SS used something like this in their defence."
See also these links: 

http://www.archive.org/stream/westpointerwithb00blakrich#page/300/mode/2up
 Australian Goverment NOT to support the Pardon of Breaker Morant! - update 2012 http://breakermorant.com/blog/?p=388 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/287483

A new book published in South Africa has Australians-Breaker Morant-supporters furious. Well, it's only about the truth, isn't it? http://www.beeld.com/Boeke/OnlangsVerskyn/n-Legende-ontmasker-20120603

Linares 2010

It is time for Linares 2010! These are the players taking part this year. Please click HERE for the official site.

Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma

Sefu Sekgala 01 February at 15:20
Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma
Today at 4:54am


Dear Mr President Jacob Zuma


After having read the front page story of the Sunday Times (31/01/2010), I feel compelled to write to you as this ordinary citizen that I am. Because I am a commoner, my judgement of your actions could be regarded as disrespect. Equally you might be indulging in all these sordid acts because you feel that you cannot be questioned and brought to book.


As a young man I have an interest in the way in which those in power are behaving, so as to ensure that we have good, moral and ethical leaders to look upon. A public figure who does not inspire confidence or does not conduct themselves in a manner that seek to inspire development of society, should be eliminated from the limelight and sent into the deepest of corners so that their misleading acts are shunned. To me you happen to be such an individual.


In your address during your inauguration and also in your first State of the Nation address, you emphasised greatly on moral regeneration. The reason why religion has seemingly failed to produce members that embody the values taught in religious institutions is because the preachers themselves are failing to be upright leaders who live out what they preach. You are such a preacher to me.


Given your past record that displays you as a man who is easily tempted by indulging in sexual intercourse, it is very difficult for me to throw water over the claims made by the Sunday Times. To me it is irrelevant that the person you impregnated is the daughter of Dr Irvin “The Iron Duke” Khoza, I would still feel the same way even if it was just yet another woman. If this baby was born under normal circumstances, it means that you must have slept with this lady around January 2009. During the same time you had already paid Lobola for Thobeka Madiba-Zuma and you were planning your wedding day with her. At the same time you were already having the pleasure of being attended to by two wives. I suppose given that you were busy campaigning for the 2009 General Elections, the challenges that you faced couldn’t be accommodated by your wives, you needed to find solace and release your masculine energy on another woman outside wedlock.


What nauseates me the most is the fact that this lady got pregnant, meaning you had unprotected sex yet again. To me it is clear that you have unprotected sex with your wives, because you do it so easily with “omakhwapheni”. It means you are a risk to your wives, because you seem to be fishing for HIV, so that you can take the catch home and distribute it evenly amongst them. Unless there is preventive medication for HIV that you have and we the ordinary people do not have access to.


The Zulu Kingdom should be ashamed at how you have paraded their culture of polygamy, a culture that is in fact to me very demeaning of women. To me it symbolises true qualities of chauvinism and patriarchy, whereby if a man is not satisfied with one woman, then they can go get another. Meanwhile society would vilify a woman who would take a second man. Polygamy also promotes cheating on your wife, because you must first know the second wife, well in your case sixth, intimately on stolen moments away from your wife. So during that time you are lying to your wife or wives claiming to be seeing no one besides them and even to God, whom you made such a pact with when getting married.


Polygamy reduces women to objects that are used to just satisfy the egos of many men out there, who see having many women as a sense of superiority and achievement. To me this is a very small minded sense of thinking.


I cannot have you preach morality to me when you partake in such disgusting acts that make me feel if only I was not a South African. When a sex scandal broke off about Mr Bill Clinton, he had to step down as President of the USA. The President of the World Bank stepped down after such allegations were tabled against him. However to you it is just yet another day another dollar and nothing will happen, because you are hiding behind tradition and using it to camouflage your helpless sexuality.


You are a man who does not respect women clearly, a man who does not believe in treating your wives with the best respect they deserve. I doubt maKhumalo is happily married to you, but she is probably fearful of what shall become of her if she were to leave you. It is unfortunate that the majority of the people in your organisation find your acts acceptable; it goes to show how the morals of the ANC have become fragmented over the years.


You occupy the highest seat in our land and many people will find a way of using your acts to justify their mistakes and atrocious behaviours which resemble yours. You are not a beacon of hope to me, but rather that one of disaster.


It is impossible that you could raise all your 20 children, so it means that you promote unstructured families whereby kids grow up with single parents. You promote and justify cheating. You promote for society to discredit the three pillars of fighting HIV, because you do not Abstain, you do not get to Be Faithful, you do not Condomize.


What are you good for? Absolutely nothing. You are shaming our country and making it seem as if we are unable to be led by principled leaders.


You are a health risk to your wives, you are a financial risk to the taxpayers who must pay for your opulence and you still pledge your support to communists.


I ask of you to step down as President, before you turn South Africa into a quagmire that resembles your sexual life and its animalistic behaviours.


Written by: Lukhona Mnguni


COPE and COPESM member, in his personal capacity


killpovertysa@yahoo.com

This letter was sent to me via email. I blog it for the world to know what is going on in my lovely country and what the people of my country think about our president.

The King and I

In this game you can see an unusual opening...with a King...the game is also on chessgames and on this link to play through the game on chessgames.
Not that I think I'm the best chess player, but look at THIS GAME  game - also the same opening, but this shows you how wrong this can be - to move your King in such a position!

to play through the game

Night at the concert

Enjoy some good music from James Last while playing through the game! This piece of music is called: Elizabeth Serenade. Image: sybervision.com

This chess game was played on the site of Chess.com and my first tournament to play. I don't have that much time to play tourneys, but have entered one now and finished the game last night. I was very lucky in this game. I played white. At one point I said to my fellow South African, also my opponent - after his comments of good play from my side - that I was going to resign as he was in a winning position. Earlier in the game I actually typed a message to ask for a draw as the game was even - play through it and you will see why I say this. I then thought it was a bit cheeky of me to ask for a draw and removed my message. At the point I was about to resign, I was actually waiting for my one pawn to run off, if the right move was made from my opponent's side and he did it! Like Philidor says...the Pawn is the soul of chess! This was pure luck! We have another game going, but my brain is now racked and needs a rest..[hehe] In the image you can see the end position when my opponent resigned.

In this next game I played black and a chess-friend has asked me to blog the game here as it was actually on my Wordpress-blog, but he couldn't play through the game. So, Dan, here goes...enjoy! I have also thought at one point this game was a lost for me, then I noticed my Queen-move and the pin with my Bishop helped too. I was earlier in this game counting my last days on this chessboard and I think I can count myself lucky in this game too.

Valentine Chess

Original image: funmunch.com
I hope you like my edited image - I created it by using Fireworks - Have a great Valentine's day!
On my WP-blog on this link you can find lots of beautiful pics about Valentine's day. Enjoy!

Liefde is: [love is] Original image:
leukespreuk.nl

Corus Round 12

Round 12 - Corus 2010 - Anand vs Kramnik. This image shows the position of the board after move 21 was made by Anand. Click on images for a larger view.

In this game you can see the position of the board after move 19 - This is Leko vs Carlsen.

Smeets vs Van Wely - position of the board after move 18.

Jean_Claude.Borelly-Dolannes.Melody


Jean-Claude Borelly - Dolannes Melodie

Standings after round 12 - Grandmaster Group A

Chess and Hess

Chess and Hess

This news article is from the Chronicle-Live. On the image you can see Maurice Williams.

ONE was a notorious Nazi war criminal, the other a young Tyneside soldier.

They came from different countries and from different backgrounds, but they forged a friendship of sorts and ended up playing chess together.


This is the remarkable real life story of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and Maurice Williams of the Durham Light Infantry.


Charged with guarding Hess in Berlin’s Spandau Prison, Maurice the pair ended up playing a game of chess.


“It was 1951 and our Battalion was taking up guard duty at Spandau Prison,” said Maurice, who lives at Ovington in the Tyne Valley.


“There were a number of Nazi war criminals there and I was curious about the place.


“I decided to take a tour of the prison and it certainly was a grim place. On my travels I came upon this guy in the prison garden, reading a paper.


“It turned out to be Rudolf Hess. We weren’t supposed to talk to either him or the other Nazi prisoners and, if caught, I would have been on a charge, but I was curious about him.


“He had a chess board and I asked him about it. He asked if I played chess and, luckily, I did.”


Hess challenged Maurice to a game and Maurice said: “In the end, he beat me easily. I said to him that I only thought two moves ahead and that he must be thinking about 10 moves ahead. He laughed and said: ‘Maybe a few more than that’. We played a second time and this time I gave him a much better game but, again, lost out.”


Maurice said Hess was unlike the picture he painted in the Nuremberg Trials of a man on the edge of sanity, adding: “He was a perfect gentleman and asked such things as ‘are you married?’ He spoke perfect English, better than myself!


“I told him I was single and he asked about my family, it was just like talking to the man next door. I really wanted to ask him how he felt about the Jews but the opportunity didn’t arise.


“He said he liked the British and American guards, but wasn’t too keen on the Russians.


“I’m not surprised about that as I found them a funny lot, especially when they were on the vodka, which was made out of diesel oil. If they gave it to us we had to drink it with black pepper.”


Nobody was more shocked than Maurice at what had gone on in Nazi Germany, but he didn’t class Hess as one of the hard-liners who were hanged after the war crimes trial.


“I don’t know why they didn’t let Hess go in the 1950s. Spandau was a harsh place and Hess had a room the size of a normal living room with table chair and bed and also a wireless.


“I believe that later he was given much more room.”


Apparently Britain and the USA wanted to release Hess, but the Russians wouldn’t allow it. Many think it was because it gave them a foothold in West Berlin.


Hess is said to have committed suicide in 1987.


It was not the first time Maurice had been to Germany.


He had joined the Durham Light Infantry at the end of the Second World War and witnessed the devastation as he travelled through France and Belgium toward Germany.


“In Germany we had to hammer on the doors of the civilians and tell them to get their valuables packed up within an hour and stored into the lofts or such place.


“We then took their homes over as billets as there was no army camp. They were put into a displaced persons camp.


“All the time we were there I never knew of any soldier touching the belongings of the German civilians.


“They were lovely middle class houses with lovely gardens. You know what Geordies were like for gardening, so enjoyed keeping them in shape. They could come back to their homes undamaged with nothing missing. In 1946 we were sent out to Egypt. It was later in 1951 when we were posted to Berlin and Spandau.”

This music file is the music by Haydn and it is "The Clock" part 3 "Rondo"...do enjoy! One of my big favourites. Unfortunately, it's only a taster ....now you can get the music if you like it...You need to turn the volume up to hear the clock in the start of the track.

Corus Round 10

Report of round 10 Corus 2010 Round 10

It was the day of the world champions Wednesday in Corus Group A with India’s Viswanathan Anand, the reigning title holder, notching up his first victory in tenth-round action, after an unbroken series of draws, and former world champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia taking the sole lead in the standings of the annual chess tournament at Wijk-aan-Zee.

Kramnik surprised Vassili Ivanchuk in an unusual variation of the Queen’s Gambit sacrificing a piece at his 19th for a promising attack. But ‘Chuky’, who played black, found a way out and even held a slight edge in the resulting endgame. The peace was signed at the 40th when both players were in danger of getting into time trouble. The draw put Kramnik half a point in front of Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Spain’s Alexei Shirov.

The Spaniard, who had been on top of the A-Group standings from round one, played a brilliant game from a Ruy-Lopez Archangelsk variation with black to reach a vastly superior position against Anand. Pressed for time, however, he missed the winning 39. …Ng3!! wasting his advantage and, in fact, the whole game, when he blundered with 39. …Rxe6?? instead. He fought on but never got back into the game and surrendered sixteen moves later.


“I’m not playing all that well,” Anand admitted, commenting on his victory at a press conference. “It’s not that I’m unwilling to show my hand in advance of the title match I’ll be playing against Veselin Topalov in Sophia, Bulgaria, next April. I’m really trying to win but it just doesn’t work. Today, for example, I got nervous in an already worse position. I don’t know what came over me; I was dreaming.” Even a world champion is only human, it seems.

Carlsen, who faced Russia’s Sergei Karjakin in a French game, got lucky, too. The Russian did well in the opening and had the upper hand until a rash exchange sacrifice around the 30th changed the situation drastically. Carlsen remained an exchange up to grab the full point in the ending fifteen moves later. As both players left the tournament hall straight away, there was no helpful comment available. Some experts admitted they failed to understand the encounter but GM Ivan Sokolov was so impressed by Carlsen’s performance that he decided the young Norwegian deserved the daily ‘Ymouth Versatile Prize’ of 500 euros.


Three other games were drawn in a more or less orderly fashion –although Hikaru Nakamura had to work hard for his half point against Leinier Dominguez- but in the final encounter of the round, Sergei Tiviakov defeated fellow Dutchman Jan Smeets with white in 34 moves from a Petroff Defence.


Dimitri Reinderman earned the 250-euro prize for the best game of the day in Group B with another lucky win. Playing white in an English game against India’s Pentala Harikrishna, the Dutchman obtained a winning position only to waste his advantage in time trouble towards the 40th. What followed was a virtually balanced endgame with two white rooks, one black queen and an equal number of pawns on both sides. Reinderman’s win came when Harikrishna committed a fatal blunder on the 58th.


Sounya Swaminathan of India defeated Sweden’s Nils Grandelius with white in 36 moves from a Sicilian Defence. It was the Indian’s first victory and earned her the daily prize of 100 euro’s. Holland’s Benjamin Bok defeated Dutch women’s champion Zhaoqin Peng with black in an English game to reach his second IM norm.

Images: Corus Chess 2010

Chess game

In this game I played black. My opponent resigned the game. I will start blogging more chess-stuff on this blogger-blog as I'm a bit frustrated with Wordpress.
The following song is an Afrikaans song. Read on the link more. This song is sung by one of my teachers from Secondary School. It is a beautiful song. The above image is a collage which I put together in Fireworks.

Read here about Sypaadjie Mense - translated into English too.[Sidewalk people]

Sal ons speel?

SA Juniors 2009

South African Junior Chess Championships 2009 - December 2009.
Hierdie verslaggie is saamgestel deur Connie, een van my mede-skaakspelers op chess.com. Connie se twee dogtertjies speel skaak - sien hulle op die foto met Melissa Greeff, Suid-Afrika se eie Woman Grandmaster. Melissa het onlangs - soos in Junie 2009, haar titel gekry. Die Junior Skaakkampioenskappe het Desember plaasgevind en Connie se tweeling het deelgeneem en hy het die volgende verslag saamgestel en die foto's geneem. Dankie, Connie, jy's 'n ou doring! 'n Staatmaker, want soos jyself se, dit was ook nie eens in die koerante nie...ai, ai, ai, Suid-Afrika! Baie geluk aan Connie en die twee dogters met hulle puik prestasie!

Ja, waar sal ek begin. Dit was in die 1ste plek glad nie ‘n vakansie by die see nie. Voel eerder of ek terug by die huis is om te rus. Dit was baie oorweldigend vir my, so ek kan net dink hoe dit vir die kleintjies moes voel. Daar was by die span kampioenskappe +- 1800 spelers en by die individuals 900-1000. Die eerste 3 dae met die spanne was ‘n nagmerrie. Dit was eens te veel vir diekleintjies en vir die pa.. Baie van die o/8’s van die verskillende unies het meer gehuil as skaak gespeel want die druk was net te veel. My 2 het in die onmoontlikste drakies verander wat net wou huil en baklei. Die kompetisie was baie sterk en die deel van die toernooi het uit 5 rondes bestaan. Marelize het 4 van haar 5 en Bernize 3 van haar 5 gewen. Ek weet nie presies waar die span geeindig het nie maar vermoed dit was maar hier by 15/20. Eerste was Noordwes A en 2de Gauteng Wes A.

By die individuals het die senuwees begin kalmeer en dit het beter gegaan met die emosies. Ongelukkig is die o/8’s en o/10’s saam gegooi vir die pairing alhoewel die results gesplit is. Bernize was heel tyd no 1 tussen die 0/8’s tot en met ronde 6 (9rondtes in die deel van die toernooi) Haar laaste 3 het sy verloor, want sy was gepair teen van die beste 0/10’s en het toe 5de geeindig. Marelize het 10de geeindig. Eintlik dink ek sy het baie onder haar potensiaal gespeel en dink ek dit was maar ‘n geval dat die toernooi te lank geword het vir haar. Die 2 is ook met die 2de ronde gepair om teen mekaar te speel wat toe geeindig het op ‘n draw

By die prys uitdeling was daar ‘n paar grootname in SA skaak.   Laura Irwin het nou in Januarie glo 2de gekom in Egipte in ‘n Toernooi. David Gluckman, IM van Westelike provinsie. Sy kinders speel ook skaak en ek was nogal heel trots toe Bernize sy seun , Paul, (Bord 1 van WP o/8 A span ) gewen het in die span toernooi. Nicholas van der Nat van Gauteng South. Hy is tans SA geslote Kampioen. Op die onderste foto ontvang Melissa 'n trofee van Advocate Lyndon Bouah, Visie president van Chessa. Die trofee was vir die beste prestasie nasionaal en Internasionaal. Ongelukkig was daar nie eens iets in die media oor die hele toernooi nie. Nie eens ‘n koerantberig nie. Om vir Melissa te ontmoet was natuurlik die hoogtepunt veral toe sy ingestem het vir ‘n foto saam met my 2 en hulle maatjie Jessica. Nou wag ons net om te hoor wie word uitgenooi na die geslote kampioenskappe waaruit die Springbokspan gekies word.

Follow THIS LINK to see more pics of tournaments played on the site of the Northern Cape Province.