White, playing as usual up the board in the diagram, can force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends.

This weeks puzzle is the opening round of a national contest where Guardian readers traditionally perform strongly. You have to work out how White, playing, as usual, up the board in the diagram, can force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends.

The puzzle is the first stage of the annual Winton British Solving Championship, organised by the British Chess Problem Society. This competition is open only to British residents and entry is free. The prize fund is expected to be at least 1200, plus awards to juniors.

If you would like to take part, simply send Whites first move to Nigel Dennis, Boundary House, 230 Greys Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, RG9 1QY. Or by email to winton@theproblemist.org.

Include your name, home address and postcode and mark your entry Guardian. If you were under 18 on 31 August 2019, please include your date of birth.

The closing date is 31 July. After that, all solvers will receive the answer and those who get it right will also be sent a postal round of eight problems, with plenty of time for solving.

The best 20-25 entries from the postal round, plus the best juniors, will be invited to the championship final in February (subject to Covid-19 restrictions). The winner there will qualify for the Great Britain team in the 2021 world solving championship, an event where GB is often a medal contender.

The starter problem, with most of the pieces in the lower half of the board, is tricky and with an unusual twist. Obvious checks and captures rarely work. It is easy to make an error, so review your answer before sending it. Good luck to all Guardian entrants.

Magnus Carlsen survived some anxious moments this week in his quarter-final match in the online Clutch International before the world champion overcame Americas top junior Jeffery Xiong. The 19-year-old Texan had a purple period in the middle of the 12-game series when he had a run of five games with two wins and three draws.

Carlsen was dominant at the start and the finish and his best two victories were imaginative attacks where the rare knight move Nh7! featured.

The event, financed by the St Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield who has made his home city a global chess centre, has the highest prize fund yet, $265,000 (approx 207,000), for an internet tournament.

Carlsen controlled the first session of his semi-final on Thursday evening as he led Armenias Levon Aronian 6-2 without losing a game. Wesley So also led 6-2 in the all-American semi-final against the world No 2, Fabiano Caruana.

A Carlsen v So final would be far from a done deal for the world champion, as So is currently in excellent form. The semi-final is also not over yet due to the Clutch scoring system where the final two games (of six) count double on the first day and triple on the second. In his interview after the Thursday session, Aronian declared his intention to go into berserk mode for the last six games, taking extra risks to get back into the match.

Both semi-finals can be viewed live online for free with grandmaster commentary, starting at 7pm on Friday.

Read more:

Chess: national solving championship opens for entries from Britain this week - The Guardian

In one of my recent articles, I called Magnus Carlsen a "born entertainer" and asked, "Who could forget the barbs he exchanges with GM Anish Giri on Twitter?" Our world champion never fails us. The very day after my article was published, we could witness the following conversation on Twitter:

I hope that a book will be published one day where all the Twitter exchanges between these two great players will be collected together. Besides the obvious entertainment value, such a book could teach people something about chess. Let's see for example what Carlsen and Giri are talking about in this particular tweet. Here is the game that started this rumble:

For most people, this game will be remembered for the grotesque blunder at the very end. This is what Giri is referring to when saying, "no more horse blunders in the knockout." But to understand the true meaning of "those types of positions" or "Julio Granda style," you need to know a bit of chess history.

For starters, let's go 74 years back. The world was just recovering after the horrendous war and the match Moscow vs. Prague was one of the first international chess events. As you can easily guess, there was not much intrigue in that match since the team of Moscow grandmasters could probably win the olympiad, let alone beat a team of just one city. So the match would have been remembered only by chess historians if not for two games won by David Bronstein. This is where the King's Indian Defense was officially born. This dynamic opening had many names in the first years of its development: "an irregular opening," "the Indian Defense," "the Ukrainian variation," etc... The two games of GM Bronstein turned what considered a semi-correct opening into a formidable weapon! Let's look at the key points of this new opening strategy.

Here is the second Bronstein game from the same match:

If you compare the game Carlsen vs. Dubov with Bronstein's masterpieces, you can see many similarities: the same "hopeless d6-pawn" according to Alekhine turned out to be not so hopeless, the h-pawn push which made the position of White King vulnerable, the powerful Bg7, etc. Now you can see the type of positions Carlsen and Giri discussed in their Twitter exchange.

The last mystery we need to solve is the "Julio Granda style" reference. I played the talented Peruvian grandmaster only once, but I always respected his unique talent. While he was never a true professional chess player (He even retired from chess for a couple of years to take care of his farm.), he could beat almost any player on a good day. He always had his special vision of chess and produced many outstanding games. What did Carlsen mean by saying "Julio Granda style." Fortunately, the power of modern databases helps us to easily solve this mystery by providing the following game:

Yes, it turns out that GM Granda beat Anish Giri in exactly the same kind of position in which Carlsen lost to Dubov. The whole episode gives us another opportunity to admire Carlsen's chess knowledge. Remember Magnus Carlsen's biggest secret? Does he really remember all the games played by grandmasters, or does he just pay extra attention to the games played by his frenemy Giri? Also, it is a fine example of chess karma when GM Giri's joke returned back to him as a boomerang.

I cannot wait for the next round in the Carlsen vs. Giri Twitter match!

Read this article:

Carlsen Vs. Giri: The Trash Talk Edition - Chess.com

Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin played a game of chess against cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner on Tuesday 9th June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1st ever Space-Earth game. The cosmonauts were 400 km above the Earth on the International Space Station, which recently welcomed NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley and their SpaceX spacecraft, while Sergey played from the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics, exactly 50 years after the first game was played in 1970.

The game was organised by the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the Russian Chess Federation and broadcast live from 11:00 CEST, in English.

And in Russian:

The game ended in a fast and sharp draw, where almost all of the moves were perfectly played:

1. e4 e5 2. f3 c6 3. b5 a6 4. xc6 dxc6 5. O-O e6 6. b3 c5 7. xe5 d4 8. c4 xc4 9. bxc4 xa1 10. c3 b5 11. h5 f6 12. f3 b4 13. e5 O-O-O 14. a3 xf1+ 15. xf1 bxc3 16. exf6 cxd2 17. a8+ d7 18. d5+ c8 19. a8+ d7 20. d5+ e8 21. e4+ d7

1/2-1/2

2016 World Championship Challenger Sergey Karjakin needs no introduction on a chess website. Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner have been on the International Space Station since April 9th, when they arrived together with NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.

They were recently joined by astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, whose SpaceX vehicle was the first to be launched from US soil since the last flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the first ever crewed commercial orbiting spacecraft. NASA estimated 10 million people watched the launch, with their arrival on the ISS also streamed across the world:

There are few details about the game to be played against Sergey Karjakin, except that Space plays White, but its value is symbolic, marking 50 years since the first such game.

Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev (1929-2004) and Vitaly Sevastyanov (1935-2010) were the first humans to spend two weeks in space (Neil Armstrongs Apollo 11 flight to the moon and back a year earlier took just over 8 days), with their Soyuz 9 flight ultimately lasting almost 18 days, or exactly 424 hours of weightlessness, as recorded on commemorative stamps.

The mission was in preparation for the Soviet Unions early space station, with Vitaly Sevastyanov in 1986 telling the Russian chess journal 64:

When Nikolaev and I were preparing for our flight they told us: Youre going to be flying for a long time. You need to think of how to meaningfully spend your rest time during the hard work of the flight. What do you want to take onto the spaceship? Andrian and I were great chess enthusiasts and answered together: Chess! Unexpectedly the psychologists were wary. There are two of you on the flight. Itll turn out that one of you always beats the other and there can be unnecessary negative emotions for the loser. Thats no good. Come on, we objected with one voice. On earth we play at the same level. Why should one of us always win in Space?

The psychologists gave in and chess went into space, though it was a special chess set designed for zero gravity by a young engineer called Mikhail Klevtsov. Magnets werent allowed (and still arent today on the ISS) due to their potential to interfere with instruments, and the pieces were instead kept in place but movable by a series of grooves, so they didnt accidentally fly into the mouth of a sleeping cosmonaut (Sevastyanov).

The players on the ground were General Nikolai Kamanin (1908-1982), the head of the cosmonaut training program, and cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko (1934-2017), with another cosmonaut, Valery Bykovsky (1934-2019) hosting the broadcast:

The game lasted 6 hours, or 4 orbits of the Earth, with the players only able to transmit their moves while the spaceship was above the Soviet Union. You can catch some glimpses of the game in this video focussed on Vitaly Sevastyanov:

The game ended in a draw, which you can replay below:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 e5 4. xc4 exd4 5. exd4 c6 6. e3 d6 7. c3 f6 8. f3 O-O 9. O-O g4 10. h3 f5 11. h4 d7 12. f3 e7 13. g4 g6 14. ae1 h8 15. g5 eg8 16. g2 ae8 17. e3 b4 18. a3 xc3 19. bxc3 e4 20. g3 c6 21. f3 d5 22. d3 b5 23. h4 g6 24. f4 c4 25. xc4 bxc4 26. d2 xe1 27. xe1 d5 28. g5 d6 29. xd5 cxd5 30. f4 d8 31. e5+ f6 32. gxf6 xf6 33. xf6+ xf6 34. e8+ xe8 35. xf6+ g8 1/2-1/2

Space missed the best chance to conquer the Earth on move 23:

23.g5! wins a piece, since the only move for the knight is 23Nh5, but then 24.Qg4! forces 24Qxg4 25.hxg4 and after the again forced 25Ng3 26.Rf2 there are various ways for White to pick up the trapped knight.

One of the most interesting things about the game is that it was commentated on widely by the best Soviet chess players. David Bronstein wrote in the Izvestia newspaper:

That game will undoubtedly go down in the annals of the 1000 year long history of chess as the game that spread the sphere of influence of this wise game beyond our planet. Everyone can understand the emotion with which I look over the moves sent from space. The first Space Earth game is very interesting to play over on a board. From the moves its easy to see that both sides love sharp, puzzling situations and show no lack of courage and invention in creating them. And the fact that neither side managed to win bears witness to the skill of the players not only in attack but also in defence.

Later that year on the 24th November 1970 the cosmonauts visited Moscows Central Chess Club for an evening featuring World Champion Boris Spassky, former World Champions Mikhail Botvinnik and Tigran Petrosian as well as other top players.

It was right in the middle of the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal that would mark a sea change in chess, with Bobby Fischer going on to win by a huge 3.5 point margin. Of the six players who qualified for World Championship Candidates Matches only Efim Geller and Mark Taimanov represented the USSR, with Fischer, Bent Larsen, Robert Huebner and Wolfgang Uhlmann taking the remaining places. Alexander Kotov, best known now for his Think Like a Grandmaster book, referred to that as he tried to look 40 years ahead, i.e. to 2010, that evening:

Im sure that then well have not an Interzonal but an Interplanetary Tournament. And the grey-haired, now ex-World Champion, Boris Spassky, will come out with a big article where as a journalist hell criticise the organisers that for some reason they allocated two places to weak players from Jupiter, reducing by two the representation of the lunar base And chess fans, gathering in an even more luxurious club to assess the outcome of the Interplanetary Tournament will of course recall the first game played in space that opened a new era for the ancient game.

Back then it was hard to imagine that the last men to travel to the Moon would have done so just two years later in 1972, with no Soviet cosmonaut ever standing on the Moon.

3-time World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik also referred to the Interzonal Tournament while talking about the head of the cosmonaut training program:

36 years ago I saw Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin for the first time, if Im not mistaken, in the Grand Peterhof Palace not far from Leningrad, when the Chelyuskin Heroes were being honoured there. Back then we were both very young and both could have become cosmonauts. Now, of course, Im no longer fit for that.

I look on General Kamanin with great envy. Although were the same age hes taken great care of himself and is in charge of our cosmonauts. Besides that, Ive already stopped playing chess myself, while Kamanin, as we just got to see, still continues to perform well in events.

From the stories of Andrian Nikolaev and Vitaly Sevastyanov it became clear to us what difficulties a man faces in space. The first is physical weightlessness, which can be compared to what the participants in the Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca feel, when theres only a rest day once in every 9 days. The second difficulty is, if we can put it like this, intellectual weightlessness.

When a man finds himself on the Earth in everyday life hes constantly confronted by the solution of complex problems or, to put it another way, inexact problems. Its not so simple to cross a street, to decide how to spend an evening to go to the cinema, theatre or find a more frivolous activity. But on a spaceship a man has none of that and he can forget how to solve complex, inexact problems. And here chess comes to the rescue because chess is a typical complex, inexact problem. After all, its long been known that people playing chess drift and find the correct decisions with difficulty.

I by no means want to suggest that cosmonauts should be picked from among chess players. On the contrary, I think that if our grandmasters will play the way theyve played at the start of the Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca (not counting, of course, Geller), then well need to find chess reserves from among the cosmonauts

Of course since 1970 chess has been played in space, with some astronauts having had plenty of time as they spent hundreds of days on Mir and now the International Space Station. The US Chess Federation in particular organised anEarth vs. Space matchgiving the chance for kids to take on astronauts. Chess always makes for good photo opportunities!

Tuesday's game will be a memorable celebration of some of the early pioneers of space flight.

View original post here:

Karjakin vs. Cosmonauts | Earth vs. Space 50th anniversary chess game - chess24

Grandmasters Pravin Mahadeo Thipsay and Vidit Gujrathi, on Saturday, launched the official website of Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA), the official chess body of All India Chess Federation (AICF) for Maharashtra.

The website has been launched by MCA to bring Chess enthusiasts across the country closer on a digital platform, in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. On the website one can not only find all relative information about MCA, the office bearers, registration procedure, future initiatives but also interact and play the game.

The MCA has sprung into action ever since the AICF restored their affiliation after a protracted legal dispute was resolved. The dispute had originally stemmed from a factional tussle within the MCA, which was registered as a society in 1975, by amalgamation of the then five regional chess bodies in the state. The association was then granted affiliation by the AICF in 1978.

In 2012, the AICF asked all its affiliates to amend bye laws to adapt with the one nation, one federation norm. But the tussle within MCA factions, however, resulted in delay of the completion of the entire process. In December 2016, the AICF disaffiliated the MCA for not amending their bye laws in time.

Finally, in April this year, in a Special General Body Meeting (SGM), a five-member panel decided to restore the affiliation of MCA along with Rajasthan Chess Association. Earlier this month, the Pune-based chess body hosted a unique Blitz Grand Prix tournament, brought by LetsUp.

The Blitz tournaments, which have a total prize fund of INR 155000, are being held every Wednesday from June 3 to July 1. Each tournament has a total prize fund of INR 25000 and top five GP finishers get a total of INR 30000. The event has been sponsored by Nasik District and Novel, Ahmednagar District and Narendra Firodia Unicorp, Pune District and Amanora, Jalgaon District and Jain Irrigation and h2e, and lastly, the Sangali District and Chitale Bandhu.

Also read: Maharashtra Chess Association hosts grand five-day Blitz Grand Prix

Read the rest here:

GMs Pravin Thipsay, Vidit Gujrathi launch Maharashtra Chess Associations official website - The Bridge

Published Jun 13, 2020 at 8:00 am (Updated Jun 13, 2020 at 10:42 pm)

People often compare, and confuse, chess and bridge and there are endless discussions on which is the better game.

For me there is no better they are both brilliant mind games, but they are really different.

In terms of pure brain-crunching analysis there is no doubt in my mind that the top chess players would outdo the top bridge players, but once you get beyond that, bridge requires a wider variety of skills beyond memory and the power to analyse.

I grew up on chess, played it a lot and was fortunate enough to win a few things at it. But once bridge came on the scene it was as if my obsession with chess had never happened.

I still read the occasional chess column and did make a brief appearance at the local chess club some years ago, but that is the extent of my involvement.

In bridge, there is a lot of history to be taken into account before making the right play what was the bidding, what was led, what cards have been played, who are the opponents, etc, whereas in chess, the board is the board and what went before is just not as important as it is in bridge.

For that reason, the top chess players can play 40 opponents at the same time and beat them all.

Chess computers have now mastered the game and, at this time, I believe the top chess computer is virtually unbeatable.

But bridge declarer play programs are not there yet relative to the top players, but they are getting there.

One aspect that both games have in common is the need to analyse the opponents actions and figure out what is behind them, and that leads me to todays hand.

Dealer East

E/W Vulnerable

North

S A107

H A42

D AQJ10

C QJ103

West

S 3

H QJ106

D 76432

C 876

East

S K62

H AK987

D 8

C K942

South

S QJ985

H 453

D K95

C A5

The bidding:

East South West North

1H 1S 3H 4S

West led the Queen of Hearts against four Spades. East overtook this with the King and returned the 8 of Diamonds. Declarer deduced that this had to be a singleton and that the only reason East could make that play was if he had control of the Trump suit, so both the opening bid and the play market him with the Trump King, and if the Diamond was a singleton, East probably had Kxx in Spades as opposed to Kx.

So he decided that it would be pointless, and dangerous, to take the Trump finesse East could win, return a low Heart to partner and get a Diamond ruff for down one.

To cater for this, as it was almost certain that East had the King of Clubs, declarer decided to attempt to cut the defenders communication in Hearts.

Declarer took the Diamond shift in dummy and ran the Queen of Clubs. After playing a second Club to his Ace, declarer crossed to dummy with a trump to the Ace and led the Jack of Clubs. East covered with the King and, rather than ruffing this trick, declarer discarded his remaining Heart.

This loser-on-loser play gained nothing directly, but it prevented a Diamond ruff by severing the Heart link between the defensive hands. East now tried a fourth round of Clubs, but declarer ruffed high and, as West could not overruff, declarer was home. He was then able to claim his contract, conceding a trick to the King of Trumps, losing only one Heart, one Club and the Trump King.

Wonderful analysis and execution by declarer in the face of a really thoughtful defence by East.

Bridge Results

Thursday, June 4

1, Linda Pollett/William Pollett

2=Claude Guay/

Sharon Shanahan

2=Miodrag Novakovic/

Margaret Way

Friday, June 5

North/South

1, Clifford Alison/Craig Hutton

2, Charles Hall/William Pollett

3, Patricia Siddle/

Marilynn Simmons

East/West

1, Joyce Pearson/

Lorna Anderson

2, Inger Mesna/John Rayner

3, Edward Betteto/

Sancia Garrison

Saturday, June 6

1, Linda Abend/Julia Patton

2= Marion Silver/

Duncan Silver

2= Claude Guay/

Sharon Shanahan

2= Judith Kitson/

Gill Butterfield

Monday, June 8

1, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2, Lynanne Bolton/

Peter Donnellan

3, Gertrude Barker/

Jane Smith

Wednesday, June 9

<149

1, Marion Silver/Duncan Silver

2, Joann Dawson/

Michael Dawson

3, James Mulderig/

Robert Mulderig

North/South

1, Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2, Marilynn Simmons/

Margaret Way

3, Linda Pollett/William Pollett

East/West

1, Magda Farag/

Sheena Rayner

2, Lorna Anderson/

Heather Woolf

3, Julia Beach/

Sancia Garrison

See the rest here:

There is no 'better' game when comparing chess with bridge - Royal Gazette

Grand Chess Master and member of Iran's national chess team Ghazal Hakimi has forsaken her Iranian nationality and will compete under the Swiss flag in international chess tournaments.

The twenty-six-year-old chess champion who is currently a student in Zurich, Switzerland, achieved the rank of Grand Master (WGM) in 2016. Her sister Raana Hakimifard also was granted the FIDE Master (WFM) title in 2015.

In a tweet in February Nigel Short, the Vice President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), had said that Hakimifard had applied to switch to the Swiss Chess Federation. "She most certainly will not be the last," he maintained.

The website of FIDE now shows her profile as a member of the Swiss team.

Several female Iranian chess players have switched nationality to play for other countries over the past few years. Expulsion for not complying with the compulsory Islamic dress code (hijab), or not wishing to do so is often a reason for Iranian female athletes switching to other nationalities.

In 2017 the nineteen-year-old Dorsa Derakhshani who had been expelled from the national team for attending an international competition without wearing hijab joined the U.S. team.

On January 2, the Iranian Chess Federation expelled another veteran chess grand master, Mitra Hejazipour, for boldly removing her scarf during the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow.

More recently, in February 2020, international chess arbiter and the former Secretary-General of the Iranian Chess Federation Shohreh Bayat decided not to go back to Iran after photos showing her not wearing the compulsory headscarf during Shanghai Women's World Championship 2020 games were published.

Punishment for not wearing the compulsory headscarf can even be extended to the families of players. Earlier this month, Bayat's father said he had been pressured by the Sports Ministry to resign from all his sports activities because his daughter "had not respected the so-called Islamic dress code".

Read this article:

Another Female Chess Grand Master Forsakes Iranian Nationality To Join Swiss Team - Iran News By Radio Farda

GM Elmars Zemgalis was born in 1923 in Riga, Latvia. In 1951, Zemgalis emigrated to the United States where he became a mathematics professor, and in 1952, he was sponsored as part of a program to bring European sportsmen to the state of Washington. Shortly after, he permanently settled in Seattle.

Zemgalis continued to play chess, beating Olaf Ulvestad in a match (Zemgalis won 3-1.), won the Washington State championship twice (winning 9-0 in 1953 and 6-0 in 1959) and continued playing for another fifteen years. He received an honorary grandmaster title from FIDE in 2003, and he died in 2014 (aged 91).

IM Jeremy Silman's Final Article

We encourage our readers to share comments with IM Silman in the comments below, or better yet, purchase one of his incredible and acclaimed books!

You might say, All and well, but was he really grandmaster strength? Lets take a look:

Zemgalis suffered hard times after Latvia was invaded in 1944 by the Soviet Union (twice!). Fortunately, he managed to flee to Germany as a displaced person. After World War II, he played in twelve international tournaments. Here are a few:

As you see, Zemgalis was getting stronger and stronger, and in 1949, he hit his peak.

Wade, who was in the tournament, wrote this: Elmars Zemgalis, a 25 years old' Latvian, owed his success to a careful style and a faculty for playing according to the needs of the position, not the score. He was unbeaten, in fact, he has been unbeaten for eighteen months.

Zemgalis and Bogoljubow were tied for first. Other players included Rossolimo, Unzicker, OKelly, and Saemisch.

Because of that, I (Silman) looked for something better and found it.

This shows you that there are wonderful ideas hiding, even if it takes decades to find them.

A soothing positional kill, dominating in the middle game and concluding in the endgame.

Perfect play should end with a draw. However, instead of saying, Draw?, Zemgalis decided to toss a trick at Black.

This endgame looks like an easy draw. However, the truth is that White is suffering a bit. Thus, White will try to find the best defense while Black will put as much pressure on his opponent as possible.

If you like endgames, especially this endgame, then you can spend a lot of energy finding out what's really going on.

Zemgalis was a fantastic blitz player. He won this tournament 7-0.

Its very rare to play a perfect game. If you want to see one, look at what Zemgalis did here.

If you wish to know more about this amazing man, look for this book by IM John Donaldson. The name: Elmars Zemgalis: Grandmaster Without The Title.

See the original post:

The Downs And Ups Of GM Elmars Zemgalis (Silman's Last Article) - Chess.com

The forthcoming fall of the values of capitalism in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a recipe of progress for the Arab and Islamic worlds, and the obstruction of enlightenment and the quest to reach it are among the ideas explored in this interview with Mahmoud El-Werwary.

Releasing his latest book Ahl Al-Aql (People with Brains) in January, El-Werwary had just finished introducing a full Ramadan season of radio production under the same title on the Sawt Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) Egyptian Radio Service, continuing his research for the reasons of the Arab and Islamic civilisation's rise and fall, a project he has been working on on Al Arabiya TV throughout his four-year programme.

The well-known TV news presenter, being among the pioneers of the 1990s in Egyptian TV before appearing, leading and founding some of the prestigious TV channels across the Islamic region, such as ART, Mehwar, Al Arabiya, Al-Alam, Alarabiya Alhadath, has been busy with the cause of enlightenment for long years.

El-Werwary is a prominent columnist with Asharq Al-Awsat and Al Ain Al Ekhbariya and has an outstanding impact on literature as well, publishing over 22 books from novels, plays, documents, media and enlightenment publications. Some of his novels competed for regional prestigious awards, including the Arab Poker for 'Halet Soqout' and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for 'Kharf Al-Balad Al-Kabir'.

The 1990 Cairo University's Economic and Political Science graduate has covered news from the majority of hot zones in critical times, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Palestine and Egypt, of course, being among the most significant news presenters of the 2011 revolution times.

He produced a large collection of analytic political programmes like 90 Minutes, Al-Hadath Al-Masri and Manarat, in addition to a few documentaries, like a five-hour documentary series about the Salafi current in Egypt.

While presenting Ahl Al-Aql on the radio, Ahram Online interviewed the veteran media person during his quarantine in Dubai in an attempt to shed light on his valuable efforts to enlighten the Arab and Muslim civilisation.

AO: You choose the radio medium to discuss such an important topic at the age of social media. What is the future of radio amid the foggy future of print newspapers and TV channels?

MW: Each medium has its own followers. There are enough fans for the radio, same as print newspapers and television. Some follow more than one medium as well and radio fans are always nostalgic for it.

Ahl El-Aql started on Al Arabiya channel in a programme called 'Manarat' (Beacons) that continued for almost four years. It was a huge project where we roamed the Arab and Islamic world to scan various ideologies. For example, we went to Mauritania to meet thinkers like Islamic philosophy professors, sociologists or known historians, thinkers of the weight of El-Jabri, Arkoun, Mohammed Sabila, and Hassan Hanafi.

The project became a book published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah at the 20th Cairo International Book Fair, January 2020 under the title of 'Ahl El-Aql'. This book was written out of the inspiration of these important interviews.

I was able to scan and document the thinking movement from Mauritania to Afghanistan, asking two questions mainly. One question revolves around the idea of the religious brain, the topic of extremism, violence, Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and the phrase of 'renewing religious thought'. The other question is an enlightenment question about why we, Arabs and Muslims, fell behind while others progressed. The project was already on TV and in book forms, so I introduced it on the radio as well.

Radio has its own fans and it is an easy medium. Radio goes from ears to hearts directly. I admire the radio and I am deeply attached to it. Throughout my TV career across the Arab countries and the Gulf, I always made my work connected to the radio. I love it.

In the peak of print newspapers and TV journalism problems, radio was less vulnerable to TV virus diseases, especially in Egypt. Radio will always be there. It could face some challenges just as much as print journalism in the game of media generations. In the 90s, we argued that printed books were going to be a thing of the past amid the rise of visual and audio books, but eventually printed book dominated. The same goes for printed newspapers in the early 2000s. It is true they are weaker now and some papers closed due to the increasing internet websites but believe me; they will always remain, same as radio and TV and other media. No medium cancels another. Media could rise or fall amid competition but each medium will always remain. Thus radio will always remain.

AO: The majority of your writings, programmes and interviews revolve around enlightenment and the conditions for the progress of Arab and Islamic countries. How much do you believe media can make an influence, and from where does change begin?

MW: Enlightenment is a national project. At some point, all factors will meet to form enlightenment. There are always movers and receivers. Meaning, there are many who are pushing towards enlightenment and others who are making it happen.

When I met the great Moroccan philosophy professor Mohammed Sabila, he said the media is part of the problem and he thought that the Arab media has been unintentionally involved in making Arab brains more shallow and silly. I respect this point of view deeply.

Media people are accused of being shallow and part of the problem. Yes, I agree that we in the Arab media, since the start of the satellite era in the early 90s, were part of this crisis, failing to be enlightened. I can't say this is an absolute judgement but it's part of the truth indeed.

The first Arab satellite experience was Egyptian, in December 1990, followed by MBC within weeks and then all the Arab world followed. Unhappily, this occurred during a huge global transformation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union that meant the falling of the communist model and resulted in the rise and spread of the capitalist liberal example with all of its market economy values.

So, the Arab media was forced to deal with the greed of capitalism and the media became a tool in businessmen's hands. This appeared clearly in the Egyptian experience that delivered a disfigured product that can't be described as television, radio or journalism.

In TV today, you see someone talking for two or three hours in front of a camera in a form that you can't name as a visual opinion piece, radio programme or TV. If you close your eyes, it's radio and if you open them it's TV and if you pay attention; you'll find the anchor revealing his former post as a journalist in a known newspaper and because of his relationship with a businessman.

In fact, Arab satellite media was launched in the victorious time of greedy capitalism, to turn into a commodity and the mouthpiece of capitalism which is always against the concept of enlightenment. Enlightenment works on values, while capitalism works on commoditisation.

Hence, you cannot be so surprised when you see the idea of commoditisation of religion that produced the new preachers phenomenon. Commoditisation of arts ended with the collapse of valuable theatre and good artists. Those we used to call messengers of values in the Arab world turned into servants at the court of gluttonous capitalism, shooting advertisements of boxers and fancy cars.

Therefore, the media has unintentionally got involved -- and I am aware of the intentions of people working in the field -- in the concept of commoditisation while enlightenment became an arduous value for a society that is, frankly, chasing only profits.

The media may play its role when someone poor like me presents an enlightening programme knowing that his audience will be very few, but in the end if I can get to just one person this could lead to a big change in the brains around him.

AO: What is the recipe for progress, and how long does it need to effect change?

Answering this key question took me over 30 episodes of 'Ahl El-Aql' programme and it wasn't actually enough. The renaissance question has been inquired during the 1930s by the great Lebanese thinker, Amir Al-Bayn; Shakib Arslan when he wondered in his important book 'why Arabs have fallen behind while others progressed?'

In search of this progress; I thought let's scan the civilisations that rose up and check their paths. We're not reinventing the wheel because their path was not intentional or planned but it actually is the normal movement that is based on the function of human brain's response.

In the 30 episodes of Ahl El-Aql, I only tried to answer just the second half of Arslan's question, which is 'why non-Muslims progressed' and I took the closest civilisation to us, the West, to which we handed the torch of culture. Civilisations don't die but rather move, said Hadi Al-Alawi. Therefore, the Western civilisation is actually the Muslims' civilisation that reached its peak during the Abbasid era.

The West took the Islamic culture, including Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Al-Ghazali, Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi. No civilisation was ever born completely on the carpet of a specific nation. But when people of a civilisation are weakened, it is carried by those who are capable. But it's the same torch of culture in the end.

The torch of the civilisations of the Romans and Greeks was handed to the Muslim nation who too eventually became weak so the West carried the torch.

The Islamic culture was based on the translations of Ibn Ishaq, Plato, Aristotle and other Greek intellectuals and their ideas moved to the Islamic world.

The renaissance recipe that, I claim, I presented in such inclusivity and accuracy in 'Ahl El-Aql' is 'to develop, you must first go through a path of progress'. At first, you need to solve your problem with the religious brain to reach the square of the brain of knowledge, philosophy and enlightenment that leads to the maturity of the scientific brain, the industrial brain that leads to positive full-change political revolutions to eventually reach the renaissance. To prove this theory, let's scan the Western culture and see how they developed.

The West progressed by a group of individuals. Martin Luther, the most important reformer, not to confuse him with the American Martin Luther King, in 1540s started the reform of the church so he solved the religious brain problem in his 95 thesis we call today 'renewal of religious speech'. The man renewed the Christian speech at his time inspiring the founding of the Lutheran and the Orthodox Church by translating the Bible and completely blowing the church's concepts of indulgences and mediation between people and God.

This renewal or correction of the religious brain consequently created brains like Immanuel Kant and Ren Descartes who would not exist without the earlier existence of Martin Luther. He launched freedom of thinking and killed fear as if he were saying; go ahead, think freely without worrying that we would consider you faithless or hit you with a death penalty for heresy. So Descartes and Kant who shaped the same philosophy also produced Hegel, Rousseau and all these genius intellectuals.

This opened the door to scientific brains like Copernicus in the 1600s, only a century later. Copernicus clashed with the church, with all of its insensitive powers at this era. The Church believed the earth is the centre of the universe then Copernicus dared to differ, saying the sun is. But he died before accomplishing his victory. Then Galileo continued the clash and eventually won. That was the first time Western brains accepted the idea that the church could be wrong.

After Galileo comes James Watt, 60 or 70 years later, to shift the Western society from riding horses to using the steam engines he invented. Then after another 60 or 70 years came Adam Smith to establish the economy before the West moved to the enlightenment era. Accordingly, the final change occurred, the three important revolutions took place; the British in the 1600s, the French and the American in the 1700s to change the Western culture. Later came the great pioneers of enlightenment, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu to turn the world into what it is today.

Have all these steps occurred intentionally? Of course not, but the human brain must go through these stages and the same applied as a salvation recipe for the Arab world where you must start from solving problems with religion. As Mohamed Abdu said "When revelation stopped, there became no authority over thinking" and Imam Al-Shafii said earlier that all is debatable except the Prophet Mohamed.

The prophet's death rendered all people equal and none was infallible, including Abu Bakr and Omar who are humans that may be right or wrong. With this mentality you re-read everything, including jurisprudence of the companions of the prophet to conclude that it belongs to its age and can't work at the current time so you need to filter it and come up with new jurisprudence that fits. Imam Al-Shafii when moved from Iraq to Egypt changed his mind about more than 30 issues.

Do we have bold jurisprudents capable of clashing like Abdu in the 19th century? We need brave and powerful religious reformers to face the society that created its own fear. When you free the religious mind and give power to poor thinkers and philosophers that can't afford to make ends meet when the lowest-standard belly-dancer in the Arab world is more famous than Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri, Arkoun, Hassan Hanafi. Shakoosh is more famous than all of these. This is an upside-down society, where a footballer's price is more expensive than the most important brains in the Arab world. This is absolutely wrong. This is the recipe you asked about.

AO: What is the role of countries and people who travelled faster down the path of progress and enlightenment towards countries still suffering dark accumulations, especially with occupation?

MW: We'd better ask, 'what have you lost from your drop?' This is a very important question as you'd better read the reasons of your defeat for yourself not for others.

This questions lead to another which is 'Is the West also to blame for our drop?' In fact, they are responsible too. Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi spoke about the readiness of being colonised. This is a very significant theory.

The West conquered the Arabs only because we were ready to be defeated. We are that kind of people who have the willingness of being conquered because weakness creates passion and curiosity for powerful others to 'ride' us. Iranian thinker Ali Shariati wrote a book that discussed the concept of ride-ability that developed Malek Bennabi's ideas. He says that the donkey is the only animal that doesn't resist its rider, unlike the horse that needs taming. People turn to ride-able nations that could be dominated by the worst people on earth.

Colonialism led to isolation and boycott. What happened? We were in the front line during the Abbasid eras of Harun Al-Rashid, Al-Maamun and other regimes that followed. What happened is that we experienced a period of boycott. For around 500 years, it was the responsibility of the Ottoman colonialism and 300 years earlier it was the Mameluke's. They created a boycott experienced by hundreds of generations who lived during these dark ages inheriting their ignorance. Ignorance turned into heritage.

This boycott is also the responsibility of British and French colonialism. The French campaign in Egypt was documented by some as a contribution to the renaissance that resulted in intellectuals like Mohamed Abdu, Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani, Rashid Rida, Rifa'a Al-Tahtawi and others. But at the same time, the occupation also strengthened boycott because people got busy with the idea of liberation more than the idea of enlightenment.

This is what Al-Afghani thought in his disagreement with Abdu. This is very important. Al-Afghani said there was no enlightenment without liberation, accusing Abdu of being discouraging and depressing because the latter thought you cannot fight in two battles at the same time while you're weak. He thought you would either struggle against conquest, like what the Algerians did against the French, or you either fight in an enlightenment battle.

Another question: how come the enlightenment led by Abdu and Al-Afghani occurred during the British conquest and when the occupation ended and Egypt was ruled by an Egyptian the fall down started? You were liberated from a former conquest to experience a nationalistic tyranny.

The unity in the struggle against the British conquest turned into an approval of Arab oppressive rules that proved their failure, like the Arab Nationalism and these kinds of ideas that all broke down on the rock of the 1967 defeat. After the failure of the Arab nationalism concept, the Islamic current popped in the 70s claiming to be a solution or an alternative. Sheikh Ali Abdel-Raziq, one of Mohamed Abdu students, revenged after losing his scientific degree and job when he opposed the concept of the caliphate in his book 'Islam and the Foundations of Rule'. In 1928, Hassan El-Banna's ideas were brought to the fore as a result. These are consecutive accumulations. El-Banna came out after you turned off the light of Sheikh Abdel-Raziq: bats come out when the light goes out.

AO: What's next after Ahl El-Aql?

MW: I feel my hands are tied although I try to use any opportunity to say something that could benefit the people. When you tell anyone that you want to produce an enlightening programme, he will laugh at you but if you pitch him a series of episodes about Hassan Shakoosh, Hamo Bika, Oka and Ortiga, he will agree.

Although the capitalism model is actually falling down in this time of coronavirus, still enlightenment is in eeriness. The world walks upside down. Compare the price of a footballer and a big thinker you will find out the show is up and the brain is down. As Mustafa Mahmoud once said 'As if the world is thinking with its feet' not brain. We are driving, my friend, with the speed of a rocket but backwards not forward.

I will tell you what our crisis is. We have lots of brains and thinkers and lots of genius projects. Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri worked on the criticism of the Arab brain discussing its problems and how to solve them in a big series. Georges Tarabichi replied back deconstructing Al-Jabri's criticism. Arkoun criticised the religious brain in a huge referential project. Then came the Egyptian genius Hassan Hanafi deconstructing the heritage. So we already have solutions for our three major crises in the Arab world but who would accomplish the change? That is the question. Where is the will? Who crippled the turning of thinking into action?

I call this 'the equation of obstruction'. Look, some thinking is like crude oil and its refining produces different fuel oils, vaseline, kerosene, shampoo and all these derivatives. Who turns this crude oil into derivatives that could be daily used by the people? To turn crude thinking into usable ideas by the people, you need three elements: a businessman, a political decision and a religious opinion that says it's lawful to use this shampoo.

These three pillars are what I meant by the 'equation of obstruction' that hinders pure thinking from reaching people's daily lives. The first obstructer is a tyrannical politician whose benefits would be influenced by people's thinking as they rule by enforcing hunger and ignorance. The second is a retroactive jurist that forbids everything.

You know that coffee was prohibited for decades, same as photography, and even trousers were debated. A very stupid story. The third obstructer is a greedy capitalist that could produce a series about Hassan Shakoosh but cannot produce a series about Ibn Rushd.

These are the three main factors of the Arab and Islamic world's crisis. Throughout history, these three used to be enemies but today they are friends and they agreed to be against the Arab and Islamic world's nations.

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INTERVIEW: Mahmoud El-Werwary reveals the recipe for renaissance and equation of obstruction - Books - Ahram Online

THE squabbles over Dominic Cummings might seem a faint memory but politicians from all parties are still demonstrating their double standards. They happily cheer on Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrators, gathering in their thousands around the country, while its stillillegal for the rest of us to visit our elderly parents. Whatever the one rule for them and another for us judgmentover Cummings, it is nowquite clearthere is one rule for law-abiding citizens who obey the draconian lockdown and one for the thugs creating havoc in the name of protesting against racism.

Of the absurd as well as shocking images weve been besieged with from these protests worthy of Chairman Maos show trials during the Cultural Revolution the most obscene has been the sight of politicians and police taking the knee.

Its high time that those who have participated in this craven gesture understand exactly what they are doing and who they are bowing down to.The uncomfortable truth is that as an organisation BLM is in danger of becoming less about human rights and more aboutvirulent racismand anti-Semitism.

Although the Movement for Black Lives coalition, of which BLM is a prominent member, has largely coalesced around charges of mass incarcerations of black people in the US, police violence against them and other domestic issues (disputed by American academic John McWhorterhere) it has also called for the ending of military aid to Israel,falsely accusing it of being an apartheid state, despite the country arguably being the only democracy in the Middle East.

Four years ago theMovement for Black Livescame out with a manifesto called A Vision for Black Lives,a truly Marxist revolutionary document which inter aliaaccuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians. This is a lie and a blood libel.A string of sympathetic Jewish organisations, from the Anti-Defamation League to the Reform movement and the National Council of Jewish Women, condemned this use of genocide and apartheid language.

Underling this gross defamation is the activists oxymoronic belief that by allying with Islamist agendas, including the destruction of Israel, they are fighting racism.So anyone who criticises their anti-Semitism by definition is pronounced a racist and this becomes, in this mindset, yet another form of racism, a recent phenomenon on which I have written several times.

Two years ago I questioned the political motives of BLM and warned about their anti-Semitism and connection with the Islamist group,the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).I also warned thatBLM were tragically demolishing most of the good work done by equal rights campaigners over the past 50 years: As they up their anti-Semitic rhetoric, pitting black Americans against Jewish ones, the once-supportive alliance between the two groups is being forgotten and eroded.

The liberal elite appear as ignorant of BLMs anti-Semitism as they are of its perverse and conspiracy theory world-view of white supremacistand patriarchal oppression.A man from Mars reading A Vision for Black Lives would be forgiven for believing there was no one man one vote, no equality under the law and no human rights in theUS at all, that its capitalism was as oppressive and brutal as Stalinism.

In their enlightenment, the woke prefer to castigate President Trump while remaining wilfully ignorant about the revolutionary cult theyare endorsing.In the last week, since the protests began inLos Angeles home of the woke celebrity Jewish business owners have been targeted.BLM protesters have vandalisedtheir shops and synagogues. One Iranian Jewish stallholder had his business targeted and destroyed by more than 50 thugs wielding bats and crowbars.

Being taught to hate Israel is shamefully having an effect. Free Palestine and Kill the Jews, war cries of the far Left and Islamists, were scrawled on to the walls of these shops and synagogues. So far BLM have not raised any objections to this vandalism.

Last week at a BLM rally held with the Rhodes Must Fall mob at Oxford University, anti-Semitic slurs and conspiracy theories about Israel abounded.

When some students objected, they were made to feel so uncomfortable that they left the rally.

Its not only Jews who have been subjected to the wrath of the BLM mob. Churches have also been attacked.

Anti-Semitism, like anti-capitalism, is a virus and it spreads.

Britains politicians need to wake up and get a grip. They are foolishly letting an increasingly supremacist BLM, with an anti-Semitic obsession, lead the narrative on racism. Their own overt anti-Semitism, extreme intolerance and prejudice makes theirown claim to fight racism ring hollow. Liberals must never forgethistory norever give anti-Semites a free pass.

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This is the new normal, I say to myself as I gaze into my laptop to venture into the Museum of Nepali Arts 360-degree virtual exhibition: InceptionA collection of Nepali masterpieces, which celebrates paubha works. The show was put up on June 5, and it is MoNAs second virtual exhibition as the country remains in an eased lockdown. But Inception steers away from anything to do with Covid, except it comes to viewers via a virtual platform because of the gloomy reality that still overcasts us.

The exhibition is a collection of paubha works from 15 Nepali artists. And all the works are stories wrapped in strokes, if one takes the time and effort to understand them that is. While some artworks presented deviate from traditional paubha paintings, they all talk about Buddhism and Hinduism and the functioning of the universe. And each artists stylistic is distinctively discernible. The variety of the exhibition also shows how the practice of paubha has evolved with generations.

The first painting is Ganesha, by Raj Prakash Man Tuladhar, and perhaps the exhibition purposely begins with it as the belief goes that the deity is a remover of obstacles. A mandala ignites behind the deity like a nimbus and it seems the artist is drawing a convergence of Hinduism and Buddhism together. The mandala also embodies the principle of life and is considered as the vehicle to seek enlightenment. And so, the exhibition sets its premise in wisdom and philosophy. And the title Inception carries the show, giving an outlook into these works to understand the theory of life.

The exhibition also presents veteran paubha artist Lok Chitrakars Chakrasamvara with consort Vajravarahi which represents the enlightened tantric form of Buddha. And although it might seem like a sexual union between two deities for people, the underlying metaphor is the fastening between compassion and wisdom to work selflessly for the benefit of all. The painting reveals the philosophy with various symbolic elements emulating good and bad emotions telling viewers one must transcend beyond dualities because there is good and bad in everything. The art discusses emptiness and bliss to reach enlightenment.

As stated earlier, some works in the exhibition differ from traditional paubha strictures, particularly in the use of materials and presentation: like Prem Man Chitrakars Dipankara Buddha, which illustrates Dipankara Buddha with meditative buddhas Amitaba and Vairochana in acrylic painting, and the late Manik Man Chitrakars Bratabandha of Siddhartha Gautam Shakya, which is a pigment painting on canvas. Theres also contemporary paubha artist Samundra Man Singh Shresthas oil on canvas painting of Green Tara that represents the element of air and compassion.

Nevertheless, all the works are incredible to marvel at. But perhaps if the exhibition had been in a physical space, the scale of the paintings would have given an even more gratifying experience.

Paubha is a traditional religious painting of deities in Hinduism and Buddhism and is unique to the Newar community. It has traditionally been practised as devotional work, which over the years has commercialised. But earlier, paubha works could only be made by artists who had taken necessary initiation on the subject, locally known as dekha, and required artists to follow ground rules. The latter is still relevant. Unlike other art, paubha has specific norms like these works should follow a story of a deity, reflect their philosophies and should strictly pertain to the articulate iconographies of the deities.

Those who purchase paubha also see a difference between buying a paubha and buying other art works, as they believe paubha transcends the beauty of art and has religious significance and ties. Many Newar communities also consecrate these paintings to use them in their esoteric chambers and are used as a tool for meditation. Paubha making is also part of the Newar tradition where family members commission their priest or artist to make new paubha in various festivals, like Janko, which is celebrated when an elderly person reaches a certain age. And so paubha in itself becomes a powerful work that not just represents a story of a deity, but our intricate connection with this world that evokes spirituality in us. And this perhaps is also why we hesitate to critique paubha works.

Consequently, this leaves us to do what we usually do when we dont understand the depth of certain works: we say they are beautiful and significant; we say we should take pride in the artists skills. But when we say such things, we should be wary of the fact that beyond the aesthetics there is a gap in the discourse of paubha. Yet, without addressing that gap, we just see them as traditional paintings and abide by the deference that our elders have asked from us. And for many, this exhibition may just be that.

The virtual show will make you revel in this art form and make you feel proud. After all, paubha paintings are much more than just art; they are heritage. But here is the catch: sometimes beauty alone cannot make things meaningful. Sure, the work can be alluring, but its allure will be fleeting. And we need to get past this. While MoNA does bring paubha to people, the gap remains un-bridged. And that is something not just for the museum to work at; it is also for the artists and the community to make an effort to see that the knowledge of the artwork is transferred beyond its beauty.

But it is commendable that MoNA is keeping its ambition to promote Nepali art and support Nepali artists despite the outbreak of the virus disrupting our lives. It is continuing with works that will spark discussions about native art like paubha. The museum was also one of the first institutions to shift its focus to the digital medium after the covid outbreak with a 360-degree virtual exhibition that explores the setting of the Kathmandu Guest House where the museum is. And in recent days, their exhibition Inception has received rave reviews from international museums.

Their enthralling beauty makes them accessible on an emotional level even without a knowledge of tantric iconographies they embody, writes Dr John Clarke, curator of Asian Department in Victoria & Albert Museum, in London, on MoNAs website.

But I cant help but think about the possibilities of enriching the virtual experience with this exhibition. The curatorial experience could have benefitted from using sounds to pull in the audience, maybe voiceovers of artists explaining their work or their experience. It could have used the museum space itself to give a context into its storytelling and explored an innovative presentation.

Not that the exhibition looks unimaginative, but it falls short because the digital world is fast-paced. MoNA emphasises the artists voice, and it also provides information to the audience, but they are not engaging enough. Navigating through buttons that take time to respond means losing the audience halfway. And if this digital medium is to become the new normal or a new asset to explore art, the curatorial experience needs to experiment and go beyond just uploading works digitally. It needs to be immersive and interactive because, in the virtual world, its easy to hop from one place to another.

Those who have an interest in paubha will strive to click through all the works, but perhaps not everyone will. Nevertheless, the exhibition is a good start for Nepali art in the virtual world.

Heres the link to the exhibition: https://www.360mona.com/inception/

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Why the virtual exhibition 'Inception' is a bit hit and miss - The Kathmandu Post