I was privileged to be invited for the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) annual scientific retreat last Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the Thursday sessions, but I was very impressed by the work done there. It is virtually all basic science, but the results of the metagenomics […]
Yesterday evening, I was privileged to be able to witness current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen in action. In an event organized by the Norwegian Business Association and Simonsen Vogt Wiig law firm, Carlsen played a simul exhibition against 16 opponents at the Norwegian Ambassador’s Residence. The “opposition” were all chess amateurs, ranging from novices […]
After tying 6-6 at classical time controls – including a short and incredibly dull final game that must have left on-site spectators feeling cheated – Carlsen and Karjakin played a tiebreak match of 4 rapid games (25 minutes with 10-second increment per move) early this morning (New York time 2pm). And what an incredible series […]
We live in strange times: worsening weather, Brexit, President Trump. In the not-too-distant past, I would have estimated Russian ex-prodigy and super-grandmaster Sergey Karjakin’s chance of toppling world champion Magnus Carlsen as being close to zero. The former is ranked number 9 in terms of chess ratings (Carlsen has been number 1 for the past […]
MIPHIDIC 