South Run and Lake Mercer – Contrasting attitudes of New Zealanders and Americans during the pandemic – Restaurant dining (not enforced by travel) – Accusation against Hans Niemann – Evening statistics
Many of Jane Austen’s sentences are a source of delight to me regardless of their context, but there is one from Pride and Prejudice that seems particularly apposite today: “Mrs. Bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity.” Now that I look back upon my recent complaints about the rainy weather, they seem to me fretful and even peevish. Residents in Florida have felt the effects of the recent hurricane, which has merely brushed by this area, to a much more severe degree than we have. A popular vacationing spot, Sanibel Island, is now declared to be uninhabitable and its population is being forced to find living quarters elsewhere. Thousands of people in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area have been without power for days and have been required to boil their water before using it. What have we had to endure in the mid-Atlantic states by way of contrast? Some wet and rather chilly days that didn’t even bring in an extraordinary accumulation and that never at any time broke out into a severe downpour: the rain consisted mainly of drizzle and off-and-on showers.
The reappearance of the sun today would in itself have been a restorative to my mood, but yesterday also was exceedingly pleasant. I went with the Vigorous Hikers on a route beginning at South Run and continuing to the Cross County Trail (further south than the portion I covered last week) and then back again via the circuit around Lake Mercer. The weather was cool and damp but we had no rain, and the stream crossings were not troublesome at all. (As I said above, the actual amount of rainfall was not enormous, despite the continual hours of overcast skies.) There were not many of us, but we had the pleasure of the inclusion of MS, who had frequently hiked with us before she became a resident of New Zealand. She has been paying a visit to the U.S. and was able to join us while staying in the DC area. We completed 13 miles. Normally we would have extended the hike by circumnavigating Burke Lake as well, but we decided not to risk starting around the circuit (it is nearly an additional six miles, including the connector trail between South Run and Burke Lake) and being caught by a rainstorm.
MS and I fell into conversation during the hike, and she gave me a good deal of information about life in New Zealand during the pandemic. In general, there has been much less turmoil about it than what we have undergone here. There may have been the odd holdout here and there who resisted taking the vaccines, but by and large people received them with the same sang-froid that Americans displayed about taking the polio vaccine in the early 1960s. Then, too, New Zealand has seen no counterpart to the displays of screaming hysterics and physical violence from pampered over-indulged women with a grossly exaggerated idea of their personal importance when asked to comply with mask mandates in shops and restaurants. MS added that the enthusiasm that Jacinda Ardern has evoked from foreign observers is not reciprocated to the same degree by several New Zealanders; but she admitted that at no point did Ardern display anything like the blatant irresponsibility and eventual treasonous conduct of our late President – but I must not belabor this last point, I’ve said too much about it already.
Several of us dined together that same evening. I have eaten at several restaurants during my recent trips, but that was mainly because it was impossible to get fed otherwise. I had gotten out of the habit of dining in restaurants while staying back home, so it felt strange at first to see that dining out has become as relaxed and stress-free as it had been before the pandemic began. The fare was simple but satisfying, and we chatted comfortably together about travel plans and the comings and goings of mutual acquaintances. Even in this situation, however, we were not completely untouched by the pandemic: during our conversation it was mentioned that LH, who under normal conditions would have hiked with us that day, had contracted COVID and was currently in self-isolation.
During the hike, also, TK and CC touched upon the recent scandal that is rocking the chess-playing community: namely, the accusations of cheating by Magnus Carlson against Hans Niemann. Niemann has admitted to cheating in the past in games played against computers, but denies having cheated in any over-the-board games. Cheating online is easy enough to do: one can play against a computer at one workstation and then access the moves recommended by chess engines via a second, independently powered workstation. But it seems unbelievable that he could cheat in a live tournament. Even the aid of an unseen accomplice would not be of much use: the position of the game has a 15-minute time lag time before it can be viewed by the spectators, so that at almost any point in the game it is impossible for anyone except the two players and the officials to know the placement of the pieces at any given time (unless one of the players takes more than fifteen minutes to make a single move, but that does not happen very often in matches that stipulate that players make forty moves in two hours). On the other hand, Niemann has replicated the moves recommended by chess engines with uncanny accuracy – far greater than that of the other masters. And he is only nineteen years old. That is not exactly impossible – for all anyone knows, Niemann might be the greatest player ever in the history of chess – but it is extremely unlikely. FIDE, the governing organization of international chess competition, is currently investigating the matter. It may be added that Niemann has stated that he is prepared to play naked, in “a closed box with zero electronic transmission,” in order to prove his innocence – which certainly shows a degree of confidence in the outcome.