VOCABULARY: words ending in OSIS

Continuing with my pre-sleep activities, I'd been thinking about words ending in OSIS but could remember only a frustrating few such as psychosis, neurosis, mitosis, meiosis and kurtosis. I knew there must be many more. A search of THE FREE DICTIONARY led to the following:

• A: atherosclerosis (a disease in which plaque builds up inside your arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other parts of your body. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. Over time, plaque hardens and narrows your arteries); ankylosis (abnormal stiffening and immobility of a joint due to fusion of the bones); asbestosis (a chronic inflammatory and scarring disease affecting the tissue of the lungs. People with the condition may experience severe shortness of breath and are at an increased risk for certain cancers, including lung cancer and, less commonly, mesothelioma); apotheosis.
  
• B: brucellosis (a bacterial infection that affects thousands of people worldwide. Avoiding unpasteurised dairy products and taking precautions when working with animals or in a laboratory can help prevent brucellosis; symptoms may include joint and muscle pain, fever, weight loss and fatigue; some people develop stomach pain and cough; treatment includes antibiotics; relapses are common).
  
• C: cyanosis (the bluish or purplish discolouration of the skin or mucous membranes due to the tissues near the skin surface having low oxygen saturation); cirrhosis (a condition in which the liver does not function properly due to long-term damage. This damage is characterised by the replacement of normal liver tissue by scar tissue; cirrhosis is most commonly caused by alcohol, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease).
  
• D: diagnosis; dermatosis (a broad term that refers to any disease of the skin, especially one that is not accompanied by inflammation e.g. dermatosis papulosa nigra (DPNs) are very common benign brown warty papules that appear in African Americans and other patients with dark skin phototypes; DPNs usually affect the cheeks, neck, and upper chest); diverticulosis.
  
• E: endometriosis (a condition whereby the tissue from the inside of the womb is growing outside of it)
  
• F: fibrosis (the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue in a reparative or reactive process. This can be a reactive, benign, or pathological state. In response to injury, this is called scarring, and if fibrosis arises from a single cell line, this is called a fibroma); fluorosis (dental fluorosis, also termed mottled enamel, is an extremely common disorder, characterised by hypomineralisation of tooth enamel caused by ingestion of excessive fluoride during enamel formation).
  
• G: gnosis
  
• H: halitosis; hypnosis
  
• I: immunodiagnosis
• J: none known
  
• K: keratosis (solar keratosis or actinic keratosis, also commonly known as sunspots, are rough, red, scaly, or crusty spots on the skin that are caused by excessive exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation (UVR) from the sun. They are more common on sun-exposed areas, such as the face, nose, ears, chest, forearms, and back of the hands); kurtosis (the sharpness of the peak of a frequency-distribution curve).
  
• L: listeriosis (an illness usually caused by eating foods contaminated with the bacteria known as Listeria monocytogenes. Listeriosis is a serious disease in pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Infection is treated with antibiotics); leucosis (avian sarcoma leukosis virus is an endogenous retrovirus that infects and can lead to cancer in chickens; experimentally it can infect other species of birds and mammals)
  
• M: miosis (a process where a single cell divides into two identical daughter cells); meiosis (a process where a single cell divides twice to produce four cells containing half the original amount of genetic information. These cells are sex cells – sperm in males, eggs in females); metempsychosis (the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species); metamorphosis; mononucleosis (infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV, human herpesvirus 4, HHV-4) in which there is an increase of white blood cells that have a single nucleus (monocytes), the infection can be spread by saliva, also known as mono, the kissing disease); misdiagnosis; myxomatosis
  
• N: necrosis; neurosis; narcosis (a state of stupor, drowsiness, or unconsciousness produced by drugs)
  
• O: osteoporosis; osmosis
  
• P: psychoneurosis; psychosis; prognosis; pediculosis (infestation with lice)
  
• Q: none known
  
• R: none known
  
• S: scoliosis; silicosis
  
• T: toxoplasmosis; tuberculosis; trichinosis (a disease resulting from infestation with Trichinella spiralis, occurring in humans, caused by ingestion of infested, undercooked pork, and characterised by fever, muscle weakness, and diarrhea); thrombosis
  
• U: none known
  
• V: varicosis (any condition characterised by distension of the veins); virosis (infection with a virus)
  
• W: whoosis (an object or person whose name is not known or cannot be recalled)
  
• X: xerosis (abnormal dryness, as of the eye or skin)
  
• Y: none known
  
• Z: zoonosis (any disease of animals communicable to humans); zygosis (the union of two gametes; conjugation); zymosis (any infectious disease; the development process or spread of such a disease)
  

CHESS: Holding On

This is the position that I reached after White's 41st move against Fritz set to Master Level. Here are the moves:

I'd managed to maintain material equality but I'd been in defensive mode for most of the game, and I still was. I was certainly on the back foot. My three pieces were on the back rank and there were various threats looming. I decided to take a break from the game and analyse the situation before proceeding. Fritz's analysis showed that the best way forward for Black was to play 41...exf4, although White still maintains the advantage. The suggested continuation was:

This sequence of moves leads to the following position (constructed using ChessX):

The frustration for Black is that he can't play (in the first position) Nc6 to drive away the White Rook because the b pawn is then lost. In the continuation described, Black does play Nc6 but at a later date. In any case, the key move for Black to regain some sort of offensive does seem to lie with 41...exf4.

CHESS: More Master Mauling

Here is the position I found myself in after 10.Bb2. I decided to castle and things fell apart quickly after White's devastating 11.Na4. Black's seemingly secure position was an illusion as the Knight move demonstrated. After the Knight move:

• The Knight attacks Black's c5 pawn
• The Knight threatens to settle on Black's b6 square
• White's Black-squared Bishop threatens to take Black's Knight on c6 and expose Black's King

Black's c5 pawn is protected only by the Bishop so it cannot move to c7 to guard the b6 square. It is the Queen must move to either e8 or c7 to guard the b6 square. As it was, I moved the Queen to c7 and the White Bishop captured the Black Knight on f6. Here are the moves as they were played out:

What the Fritz analysis suggests as the best move for Black is 10...Nb4 with the following possible follow-up that doesn't quite achieve equality for Black but come closer to it than my bumbling attempt:

Even after castling and White's Knight move, it would have been better to play 10...Qe7 in order to recapture with the Queen, thus preventing the breakup of the pawn defence in front of the King and bringing the Queen to defence of the Kingside. Letting the White Knight settle on b6, if it chooses to, is not the end of the world. However, after 10...Qc7 and 11.Bxf6, it is the end of Black's world.

To me, White's position didn't look good. The white-square Bishop was sitting in front of the d pawn, preventing its advance. In fact, it was well-positioned and bearing down on Black's h pawn. The White Knight on c3 had been place there early, preventing the c pawn from advancing to c4 as it normally does in this sort of opening. As it turned out, the Knight's move to a4 later in the game proved my undoing.

VOCABULARY: words ending in EX

I often play a game as I'm trying to go to sleep in which I try to rhyme words ending in various combinations of letters. For two nights in a row, I was trying to finds words ending in ex and managed to find quite a few. However, I realised that there were plenty more that I was missing so today I determined to discover some more. Here are some of the more common words arranged alphabetically:

A: apex, annex

B: biconvex, biflex (meaning bent in two places) 

C: circumflex, codex, convex, cortex, complex, cybersex 

D: desex, duplex, diplex (pertaining to the simultaneous operation of two radio transmitters or to the simultaneous reception and transmission of radio signals over a single antenna through the use of two frequencies. 

E: the ending itself (ex) seems to be the only known word 

F: flex, fourplex (four family apartment house) 

G: googolplex (a number that is equal to 1 followed by a googol of zeros and expressed as 10^10^100 where a googol is a number that is equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros and expressed as 10^100). 

H: hex, haruspex (in ancient Rome, one of a class of minor priests who practiced divination, especially from the entrails of animals killed in sacrifice). 

I: ibex (any of several wild goats of the genus Capra, inhabiting mountainous regions of Eurasia and North Africa, having long, recurved horns), index, intersex (an individual having reproductive organs or external sexual characteristics of both male and female). 

J: no known words 

K: Kleenex (a brand name for a soft, disposable paper tissue, used especially as a handkerchief). 

L: lex (Latin for law), latex (a milky liquid in certain plants, as milkweeds, euphorbias, poppies, or the plants yielding India rubber, that coagulates on exposure to air). 

M: megaplex, multiplex 

N: neocortex 

O: octuplex (presumably an eight family apartment house) 

P: pyrex, perspex, perplex, pontifex (a member of the Pontifical College, which was presided over by a chief priest (Pontifex Maximus)) 

Q: quadplex 

R: rex, retroflex (bent backward) 

S: sex, spandex (a synthetic fibre composed of a long-chain polymer, used chiefly in the manufacture of garments to add elasticity), simplex, subcortex. 

T: triplex (threefold; triple).  

U: no known words 

V: vertex, vortex, vex

W: no known words 

X:  no known words 

Y: no known words 

Z: no known words 

It's always good to work some of these words into a sentence. For example, I'll vex my ex with a hex.

CHESS: Another Misstep

This is the position that was reached after 14 moves against Fritz set to Master Level. I have the White pieces and a solid enough position. However, I unwisely chose 15. Na4 and things quickly fell apart. I assumed that the Black Queen, once attacked, would retreat to c7 where I could attack it with my Bishop after Bg3. Black however, retreated to a7 and this was very different. Suddenly, I was a faced with the threat of a pawn fork from b5 and needed to return my Knight to the square it had just come from. Here are the moves with a brief analysis of the best continuation for White (15. Rfe1):

I certainly considered 15. Rfe1 when deliberating on my moves and it's a sensible move but unfortunately I decided on the Knight move, not realising the danger from the pawn fork. The bishop on h4 is also only defended by the Knight and is more secure on g3. It's vulnerable position on h4 ultimately led to its loss with 25. ... Bxh4 after which there was little point in continuing.

The lesson to be learned here to be always check for basic traps like pawn and Knight forks. The danger in my case was glaringly obvious. Sometimes it's less obvious. Here is an instructional configuration that involves the setting up of a pawn fork:

It's taken from http://www.chesstactics.org/, a site that boasts 20 chapters, about 200 topics within them, and over 1,000 positions discussed.

CHESS: Strategic Blunders

Above is the position after 14 moves of a Queen's Pawn opening. I have the White pieces and Black has just played Qb7. All my pieces are developed and I have a reasonable position in my opinion. I need to develop a strategic plan and the one I foolishly embarked upon involved moving my pawns to a3 and b4 to frustrate a c5 pawn move by Black. As it turned out, Black moved the pawn on b6 to b7 and this did not work in my favour. I'd buried my Bishop and, after I placed the Knight on c5 and Black placed the Knight on c4, my doubled Rooks were useless. Furthermore, the placement of my Knight was far less effective than Black's Knight placement. Black could exchange Bishop for Knight if I Knight became too powerful whereas White didn't have that option. White's buried Bishop was black-squared and Black's Knight was unmovable on its White square. From c4, the Knight bore down on e3 already under pressure from Black's Rook on the half-open file. Worst of all, the King side was completely undefended. Black is able to move his Rook up and across to the Kingside while the Queen and Bishop bear down as well. White's Queen cannot help in the defence.

My strategic plan was a sure loser against any competent player. A far better plan might have been to move the Knight on c3 across to the Kingside and keep bearing down on the half open c file with the two Rooks. This is not without it's problems too however, and so it's interesting to set the computer program (Stockfish) to analysis mode and see what strategy it comes up with. What it comes up with is interesting:

This approach is quite different and quite effective in maintaining the initiative for White. The above sequence of moves leads to the position shown below:

CHESS: Ding Lirin - China's highest ranked player ever

Ding Lirin has a peak rating of 2783. It's the highest rating any Chinese player has ever attained. There is an article in ChessBase from the 30th September 2017 about him after his runner-up performance at the World Cup which was won by Aronian. He was born on October 24th 1992 in Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province.

I came across an interesting game of his that was being discussed on a YouTube channel called ChessNetwork. Here is the video creator's introductory comments to the game:

Chess Masterpiece, Immortal Chess Game & Game of the Century are a few of the phrases that come to my mind after observing this magical game from Round 18 of the 2017 Chinese Chess League, played on November 4th. Grandmaster Bai Jinshi played as white against Ding Liren. The opening, a Nimzo-Indian Defense, three knights variation, saw Ding Liren ultimately play the part of some wizard of the game. Many elements of this game reminded me of 13-year-old Bobby Fischer's game against Donald Byrne from 1956, pegged "The Game of the Century". Might this game find its way onto the "Greatest Chess Games of All-Time" list?

Here are the moves:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 O-O 5. Bg5 c5 6. e3 cxd4 7. Qxd4 Nc6 8. Qd3 h6 9. Bh4 d5 10. Rd1 g5 11. Bg3 Ne4 12. Nd2 Nc5 13. Qc2 d4 14. Nf3 e5 15. Nxe5 dxc3 16. Rxd8 cxb2+ 17. Ke2 Rxd8 18. Qxb2 Na4 19. Qc2 Nc3+ 20. Kf3 Rd4 21. h3 h5 22. Bh2 g4+ 23. Kg3 Rd2 24. Qb3 Ne4+ 25. Kh4 Be7+ 26. Kxh5 Kg7 27. Bf4 Bf5 28. Bh6+ Kh7 29. Qxb7 Rxf2 30. Bg5 Rh8 31. Nxf7 Bg6+ 32. Kxg4 Ne5+

Here is the video:

CHESS: Nodirbek Abdusattorov - 2nd Youngest Chess Grandmaster in History

Here is a game played early in 2017 before this latest prodigy, Nodirbek Abdusattorov from Uzbekistan, became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 1 month and 11 days.

In this game, Nodirbek is Black and plays the Nimzo-Indian defence against an Indian grandmaster, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, whom he defeats in a mere 19 moves. The game runs thus:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 O-O 8. e3 Be6 9. a3 Be7 10. Bd3 c5 11. dxc5 d4

12. exd4 Nc6 13. Nge2 Nxd4 14. Nxd4 Qxd4 15. Ne4 Nxe4

16. Bxe7 Bb3 17. Qe2 Nxf2 18. Qxf2 Qxd3 19. Qh4 Bc4

The master stroke comes when Black plays 16. ... Bb3 after which White is finished. Below is the position of the board before Black plays this move. After Black captured the Knight on e4 on his previous move, White captures the Bishop on e7, clearly not expecting what then happened.

As of October 2017, Nodirbek Abdusattorov has an ELO rating of 2498. Lailith Babu on the other hand has a current ranking of 2525 and achieved his highest ranking of 2594 in April of 2014. Here is a list of the top twenty players of all time, taken from Chess-DB. Note how Bobby Fisher still ranks in 18th position with an ELO rating of 2785, achieved in April of 1972 (when I turned 23).

Chess Diagrams

In the last few months, my interest in Chess has been rekindled in large part due to http://en.chessbase.com/ and the associated online Fritz Chess Program. However, only premium users of ChessBase can make use of the feature that allows the setting up of positions, important when following through an analysis provided in a chess book. For example, I have a book called 101 Chess Endgame Tips by Steve Giddins. Here is a typical position in which White must try to draw the game and not lose it.

I could not see how to set up the position in either the chess program that comes with macOS or Stockfish that I had downloaded. So I downloaded a program called ChessX, an open source program that I found at sourceforge and found that I was able to set the position easily and play it through as outlined in the book. This is a very useful feature. 

The position above leads with proper play to White having the opposition against the Black King and therefore securing a draw. The proper play is: 

1. Kg3!! Kc2 2. Kf2! d2 3. Kf1! Kd1 4. Kf2 Kd2 5. Kf1 Kd3 6. Ke1 Kc4 7. Kd2 Kb5 8. Kc3 Kxb6 9. Kb4 and White has the opposition and draws. Ultimately, the position will end up as shown below where White must be careful to retreat to b1 where the opposition can be maintained whether Black chooses to move the King to a3 or b3.

Gaslighting

The term gaslighting was coined from a movie starring Ingrid Bergman. There is an article about its use in a 21st century context here. The article begins:

If you’re following the commentary surrounding the presidential election, you may have noticed the word gaslighting popping up with increasing frequency. To gaslight means, per the Oxford English Dictionary, to “manipulate (someone) by psychological means into doubting their own sanity.” It’s normally used to describe emotional abuse in a relationship, e.g., a cheating husband who tells his wife she’s crazy, misremembering, or “imagining things” when she points out signs of his infidelity. But thanks to recent campaign tactics, it’s becoming a political term. For example, after Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Slate ran an editorial titled “This Wasn’t a Debate. This Was a National Gaslighting,” which cites multiple examples of Mike Pence denying that Donald Trump said things that he actually, provably said. What does that have to do with gaslights, you might ask? The connection actually comes from a popular 1944 suspense film called Gaslight, in which a man (Charles Boyer) conspires to convince his wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she’s going mad.

This got me thinking about terms used in English that derive from movies. I did a little research and come up with some other terms (source dated 2nd January 2014):

1. “You’re killing me smalls” – This famous line from the American movie The Sandlot has become a popular phrase to use in informal situations since the movie was first released in 1993. Usually, if a person is frustrated by another person’s ignorance or lack of commitment to some kind of work, they might use the phrase; “you’re killing me smalls.” 

2. “Sweet” – This famous saying first appeared in the American movie Wayne’s World and became a fashionable way to say ‘great’ or ‘wonderful’. This is one phrase that I use all the time: if something is going perfectly, I will say ‘sweet!’ 

3. “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore” – This phrase is from a classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. Usually, this phrase is used when the location that you are in is unfamiliar to you, and you feel lost. 

4. “There’s no place like home” – This quote is also from The Wizard of Oz. It’s often used when a person returns from a trip and is happy to be at home. I usually use this idiom after I get home from long trips and lay down on my bed. 

5. “Houston, we have a problem” – This famous quote from the movie Apollo 13, released in 1995, has well and truly entered everyday language in America. If someone is experiencing any type of a problem, this phrase can be used to point it out. 

I'd not heard of the first mentioned phrase and that's probably because its use is largely restricted to the USA.