Chess

Janice Segall was a nationally ranked racquetball player and teaching pro. Then she picked up a squash racquet and became entranced by the sport. Segall, 57, lives in Belmont and is a physical therapy aide at Ultrahealth in San Francisco. Why: When I get into the "zone" during a match, I become so focused that all extraneous sights and sounds are muted. It is the same feeling that I get when I am rock climbing. Greatest accomplishment: This year, after having taken a long break from squash due to injuries, I played on the California squad for the Howe Cup, the national women's team competition.

Chess: The Musical: Willows Theatre Company takes on the 1986 London hit by Tim Rice (book and lyrics) with music by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus in which American and Soviet players vie for the world chess championship while the woman who manages one falls in love with the other. Through Oct. 30. $22-$32. Willows Theatre, 1975 Diamond Blvd., Concord. (925) 798-1300, www.willowtheatre.org .

Queen to Play Drama. Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline and Jennifer Beals. Directed by Caroline Bottaro. In French with English subtitles. (Not rated. 97 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) The debut film from director Caroline Bottaro, who wrote the beautiful "C'est la vie," stars Sandrine Bonnaire as a working-class woman who discovers a latent ability for chess. Working as a hotel maid, she sees a glamorous American couple playing on a terrace, and somehow chess becomes infused in her mind with romance and feminine power.

-- Two years ago, graduate student David Merrill stood on a stage in Long Beach and promised to deliver the future of play. "We're on the cusp of this new generation of tools for interacting with digital media," he said at a 2009 TED conference, "that are going to bring information into our world on our terms. " In his seven-minute talk, Merrill demonstrated the tiny interactive computers with LCD screens that he and partner Jeevan Kalanithi were developing at MIT. By touching the 1.5-inch cubes together, he could get them to do seemingly anything: add numbers, solve word puzzles, mix paint swatches and even make music.

Hip-hop stars such as the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA and GZA as well as chess master and author Josh Waitzkin will speak on the connections among martial arts, chess, hip-hop and success, and get down for a few games. The group helps kids learn about chess. VIP reception 11 a.m., panel 1 p.m., competition 2:30 p.m. Sat. $100 VIP, $15 general admission, $7 for students. Co-sponsored with the Commonwealth Club's Inforum. The Galleria at the San Francisco Design Center, 101 Henry Adams St., S.F. (415)

Bobby Fischer had hoped to play current world chess champion Viswanathan Anand or former great Garry Kasparov in a tournament before his death, an Icelandic newspaper reported Saturday. The daily Morgunbladid quoted a friend of Fischer, who died on Thursday at the age of 64, as saying he had expressed interest in holding a chess contest in India. Helgi Olafsson, an Icelandic chess grand master, was quoted by the newspaper as saying Fischer had told him he wanted to take part in one last tournament.

Chess is a paradox, says writer and filmmaker Caroline Bottaro, director of the new French film "Queen to Play. " "Chess is an intellectual game, but it's also a sport. It's something physical," she said. "One of the challenges of the film for me was to make chess into something sensual, something that I don't think had been done before in cinema. " "Queen to Play" (called "Joueuse," or "The Player," in French) follows Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire), a frustrated housekeeper who eavesdrops on American tourists playing chess and decides to play herself.

The crowd of San Franciscans, some scurrying and some loitering, around Ellis and Mason streets Wednesday seemed oblivious to the intense, high-stakes drama unfolding in a tiny hotel conference room 25 stories above their heads. But Japan's biggest newspaper and TV network were there, inside the Hotel Nikko, to record every move as two champions of Japanese chess squared off for the coveted "Dragon King" title, regarded by many as the most important of seven championships in Japan, and the $300,000 that goes with it. The world's largest-circulation newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, brought the game here to promote international appreciation for the venerable game of shogi, the Japanese cousin of Western chess.

In Monday's Chess column the Black king was placed on the wrong chess board square by the puzzle author. The correct version of the chess problem and its solution are featured at right.

We're starting a new chess column today. Syndicated chess columnist Shelby Lyman replaces George Koltanowski who died earlier this month. A master chess player Lyman has covered chess for PBS and National Public Radio. In his column which will appear Monday through Saturday Lyman will offer a chess quiz inspiring chess quotes and updates on important games. He's also creating chess puzzles for the Sunday Datebook. Today's column appears on our Comics page D6. We hope you like this new feature.

Leah Koltanowski the sharp-witted and untiring wife of legendary chess grandmaster and Chronicle chess columnist George Koltanowski has died. Mrs. Koltanowski 99 who helped her husband run chess tournaments and compose his chess column for more than five decades died Friday in her San Francisco apartment after a long illness. A small woman with a keen sense of humor and a remarkable memory Mrs. Koltanowski not only did not know how to play chess but refused every attempt by her husband and his friends to teach her the game.

The U.S. men's and women's chess champions along with 16 other top players will compete next week in San Francisco in a nine-day tournament named in honor of Chronicle chess editor George Koltanowski. Nick deFirmian the men's champion and 15-year-old Irina Krush the women's champion will begin play in the Koltanowski International next Tuesday at the Mechanics Institute chess club at 57 Post St. The 95-year-old Koltanowski whose daily column has appeared in The Chronicle for 50 years is expected to join the players for opening ceremonies.

And then there were three. As readers of Honeybee Chronicles may remember, last month we discovered that one of our two rooftop hives was preparing to swarm. We discovered the colony was building queen birthing cells, which is problematic because the hive already had a queen. Two queens means the original lady of the house will flee, taking half the hive with her. We tried to deal with it by removing the queen cups. But it wasn't an ideal solution. It's straight-up murder - at cross-purposes with our mission to provide sanctuary for the disappearing honeybee.

Charles Edmund Connolly Nov. 20, 1916 - May 23, 2011 Charles Edmund Connolly was born on November 20, 2011 in Columbus, Ohio, to body and fender man Leopold Augustus Connolly and Agnus Winifred Connolly ne Clee. Charles was the third of eight brothers and no sisters in a large Irish Catholic family. He loved playing football and baseball with his brothers. During the Great Depression, Charles worked at E. R. Squibb in Los Angeles, and spent some time riding the rails as a hobo. During World War II, Charles served in the army, first in Alaska, then training paratroopers, and finally with the occupation troops stationed in Sendai, Japan.

Queen to Play Drama. Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline and Jennifer Beals. Directed by Caroline Bottaro. In French with English subtitles. (Not rated. 97 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) The debut film from director Caroline Bottaro, who wrote the beautiful "C'est la vie," stars Sandrine Bonnaire as a working-class woman who discovers a latent ability for chess. Working as a hotel maid, she sees a glamorous American couple playing on a terrace, and somehow chess becomes infused in her mind with romance and feminine power.

Chess is a paradox, says writer and filmmaker Caroline Bottaro, director of the new French film "Queen to Play. " "Chess is an intellectual game, but it's also a sport. It's something physical," she said. "One of the challenges of the film for me was to make chess into something sensual, something that I don't think had been done before in cinema. " "Queen to Play" (called "Joueuse," or "The Player," in French) follows Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire), a frustrated housekeeper who eavesdrops on American tourists playing chess and decides to play herself.

I've always been fascinated by Bobby Fischer. He was never actually the worst person in the world - there are too many political leaders competing for that title - but he was pretty darned hard to take: virulently anti-Semitic, self-absorbed, unkind to anyone who tried to be kind to him, all that. And, of course, a chess genius, which is why anyone bothered with him at all. Maybe if he hadn't been a chess genius, he would have been a better person. That's one of the reasons I was fascinated by him. There's a new book out about Fischer, "Endgame" by Frank Brady, a man who knew Fischer well through most of his life.

If Robin Hood, King Arthur or William Shakespeare were to parachute into the 21st century, they'd feel right at home in a nondescript cul-de-sac in San Leandro. That's where Fellowship Foundry is located, a mom-and-pop metal works that's one of the last places in the United States to make hand-crafted pewter goblets, candlesticks, chess pieces and other emblems of the Middle Ages. "It may sound corny, but we're really trying to put art into objects used in everyday life," said co-owner Randal Moore.

Q: Could you update us about chess programs for the computer? I'd like to find one that offers adjustable skill levels as well as chess problems and analysis tools that can help me improve my game. A: For serious chess players, there are at least three programs to consider: Rybka, Fritz and Shredder. All come in standard versions for $70 to $75, as well as more powerful "deep" versions that run $130 to $140. They all can be purchased at chesscentral.com. By the way, the "deep" title comes from Deep Blue, the chess-playing supercomputer from IBM that defeated then-world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

(03-30) 13:41 PDT Fort Collins, Colo. (AP) -- A youth chess teacher who moved to Belize when he was supposed to be serving probation in Colorado as a convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 12 years to life in prison. Robert Snyder was sentenced Tuesday in Fort Collins. Snyder spent two years in jail in a pedophilia case and was supposed to register for special sex-offender supervision after he was released in August 2008. Instead, authorities say, he fled the country.