Chess Tournaments

I have had the itch to play chess lately. So I have joined a few online tournaments.
The first one has started. There are only five players in this one. I don't know what TER means in the fifth column from the left, but the important number is the Rating column, which tells everyone the strength of the player. I have the second highest rating in this tournament. Can you guess the countries of the participants from the flags? In order from the top they are Russia, Chile, USA, Hungary, and USA. Note the reflection time in the upper right hand corner of the table. Each player has 20 days of thinking time and each move must be made within 2 days of the opponent's previous move.
Click on the image to enlarge.



Update:
A second tournament has started. I have the fifth highest rating, so this tournament will be extremely tough. The countries are, in order from the top, USA, USA, Wales, USA, Australia, Ukraine, and Russia.

I don't know about you, but I care.

I think Chuck Schumer is a very skillful politician and he has been very effective for the Democrats. Nevertheless, he is a condescending blowhard. Note the phrases "chattering class" and "American people don't care." Such are the linguistic signals that politicians unwittingly send about how they really think.

Sloppy Journalism

I really am getting weary of journalistic malpractice that goes on in our current media.
Another example today is the AP article with the following.

Iraq wraps up election with major violence

Jan 31 10:20 AM US/Eastern

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's provincial elections have wrapped up without any reports of serious violence.

I am posting this at 11:45pm MST, so the AP has left this glaring 'error' out there for nearly 12 hours. Reuters and AP always have an adverse knee jerk reaction to any good news out of Iraq.