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The Legacy of Mattress Cash Fires

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The Legacy of Mattress Cash Fires
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This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection of past columns.

I’ve been having deep thoughts this week. About mattresses and movie tickets.

A fire sale of the cash-burning mattress company Casper and the possible revival of the cash-burning movie subscription service MoviePass have made me reflect on the past decade of changing consumer habits led by technology and bazookas of investors’ money.

Technologists are fixated these days on a potential future of blockchains and metaverses or on spending millions for a copy of the U.S. Constitution because … democracy? But before we move on to the next chapter in technology, let’s consider both the good and ugly in the current one.

On my good days, I believe that the silliness in Silicon Valley and the harms from some uses of technology are far outweighed by the benefits of innovation and optimists who dream outlandishly big. I’m glad that entrepreneurs are working to make cars safer and better for the planet, and I can’t imagine life without a supercomputer in my pocket.

At this moment, though, I’m feeling pessimistic.

Part of the recent legacy of tech is a generation of young companies that have contributed (arguably) clever ideas, but nonetheless become financial zombies. Many have ingrained unhealthy consumer expectations and lost bucketfuls of money.

I wonder if anyone involved in the 2010s tech era has misgivings about these downsides or learned any lessons from them. I hope so, but fear not.

Casper popularized buying online mattresses that are crammed into boxes and delivered to homes. This week, the company reached an agreement to sell the business for a fraction of its former value.

Circumstances might have been different for Casper without the coronavirus pandemic and the freeze in moving goods around the world. But the sale was also a sign that investors didn’t have faith in Casper’s future.

The company — like Uber, WeWork, DoorDash and many other start-ups that were emblematic of the 2010s — has been losing oodles of money after years in business. Casper also disclosed this week that it was at risk of running out of cash within a year, although the company said that the sale, along with loans, planned cost cutting and other steps, should help it stay afloat.

Also in the last few days, one the weirdest crazes of recent years looked poised for a comeback. MoviePass was thrilling to the people who paid what was initially $10 a month for the chance to watch a movie every day in theaters. It felt like an impossible deal — and it was.

MoviePass lost an unfathomable amount of money, and its parent company filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago. Now, one of MoviePass’s founders has a plan to resurrect it after acquiring it out of bankruptcy. We’ll see what happens.

Besides the red ink, what connects Casper and MoviePass — along with Warby Parker, Opendoor and many other start-ups of the last decade — is a willingness to reimagine old ways of selling products or services. Even if we never bought what these companies sold, they made stodgy industries change and opened people’s eyes to new possibilities.

It’s worth celebrating the good they have done while also learning from what went wrong. Many of these young companies got big offering unsustainably cheap services or blitzing the internet with ads. That could not last.

They also created an expectation that having a mattress or dinner delivered to our doors is an effortless, no-cost ballet. Instead, many of these services choked landfills with unwanted mattresses, treated workers miserably and contributed to increased traffic in cities. And many of these companies haven’t thrived financially either. Was all that disruption worth it?

It feels as if many of the tech mistakes from the past decade are being repeated on steroids. Electric vehicle companies that have barely produced cars are worth more than many of the world’s automakers. I see a lot of excess hype around NFTs and the blockchain, and new services cropping up that are likely to prove unsustainable.

I want to be an optimist about the ways technology has made our lives better. Right now, I’m not.

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  • What Activision’s C.E.O. knew: The Wall Street Journal published an investigation that found that the video game company’s top executive didn’t tell his board about accusations by Activision employees of rape and other misconduct against men at the company. Activision has been confronted with hundreds of claims of sexual harassment, assault and mistreatment of female employees. My colleague Kellen Browning reported that some employees on Tuesday called for the chief executive to be fired.

  • Is this really necessary? Moscow’s subway system is installing technology to scan people’s faces for entry instead of using a ticket or bank card. Celestine Bohlen writes for The New York Times that privacy advocates fear that this is an unnecessary change that’s a pretext to further surveil Russian citizens.

  • Have a Plan B for that gadget you want: My colleague Brian X. Chen reminds us that consumer electronics like video game consoles and lower-cost laptops are likely to be tough to find for the holidays. Here are his tips for shoppers.

Have you ever really looked at the legs of owls? They are amazing and a teeny bit silly.

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you’d like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. You can also read past On Tech columns.

Small business sues CNBC show for destroying profits

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Small business sues CNBC show for destroying profits
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A small business owner has filed a $21.9 million lawsuit against NBCUniversal, accusing its CNBC show “The Profit” of fraud by falsely pledging to enrich it.

Steve Weissmann, owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., filed the lawsuit filed last week in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County. He alleges that following the advice of “The Profit” host Marcus Lemonis bankrupted his company.

“I’m suffering from anxiety and depression because he ruined my business,” Mr. Weissmann, who appeared on Mr. Lemonis’ show four years ago, told The Washington Times. “Based on his direction, we made lots of changes to our business model and stopped selling custom work.”

A CNBC spokesperson told The Times that the network could not comment on pending litigation.

A spokesperson for Mr. Lemonis declined to comment on the lawsuit. Mr. Lemonis is the CEO of Camping World Holdings, an Illinois-based retailer of recreational vehicles and camping supplies.

Nationals hire De Jon Watson as new director of player development

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Nationals hire De Jon Watson as new director of player development
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The Washington Nationals on Tuesday announced De Jon Watson as their new director of player development.

Watson was previously a special assistant to general manager Mike Rizzo from 2017-2021.

“I am thrilled to move De Jon into this role as the director of player development,” Rizzo said in a press release. “He has been an integral part of our success the last five seasons and has a documented track record of success in player development. He has a thorough understanding of our minor league system and has the knowledge and experience to know what it takes to help players reach the major leagues.”

Before coming to Washington, Watson was senior vice president of baseball operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Watson, who has worked in professional baseball for more than 35 years, spent most of his career as a player development executive for the Dodgers.

He was the team’s assistant general manager for player development for five years before being the vice president of player development for three years. He started his career as an area scout with the Florida Marlins in 1991.

A former third-round pick of the Royals, Watson, who played five seasons in the minor leagues, has worked as a scouting director for Cincinnati and Cleveland.

The Tech Gifts That Are Hard to Buy This Holiday Season

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The Tech Gifts That Are Hard to Buy This Holiday Season
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It’s that time of the year when our inboxes are flooded with discounts galore for Black Friday, Cyber Week and all the sales promotions that follow.

But this year, we’re in a unique situation. We’re living in an era of scarcity driven by a global chip shortage, widespread unemployment and the effects of government-imposed lockdowns that were meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. That has disrupted global supply chains, made manufacturing difficult and snarled the shipping of items around the world.

That’s now affecting the types of tech products we can obtain for our loved ones this holiday season. Gaming devices like the PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which have been in a perpetual shortage for the last year, will continue to be a challenge to find. And the list of hard-to-get items has grown even longer, encompassing Wi-Fi routers, cheap laptops and audio gear.

Shoppers looking to buy consumer electronics will have to change their game plan. The biggest takeaway? Don’t wait until Black Friday.

“Buy early,” said Patrick Moorhead, chief executive of Moor Insights, a tech research firm. “Make the decision between saving a little money or not getting the product at all.”

Here’s a guide to the consumer electronics that will be difficult to find this year.

Let’s start with some of the most desirable and hardest-to-buy tech products: Sony’s PlayStation 5, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Nintendo’s new Switch, which have been virtually impossible to find on store shelves in the last year.

Historically, some console makers have limited the production of the machines to help build excitement for the products, gaming analysts said. But the chip shortage — and the heightened demand for gaming devices as many people were stuck at home in the pandemic — has exacerbated the dearth.

Many big-box retailers sell the new consoles exclusively online, and when new PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles appear, they sell out within minutes. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have warned that the chip shortage could lead to supply constraints through 2022.

The chip shortage and overwhelming demand for gaming products have also led to perpetual scarcity of high-end graphics cards, which people use to upgrade their computers to run more powerful games, Mr. Moorhead said.

The game plan? Consider automation. Millions are following Twitter accounts that scan retail sites and tweet as soon as game consoles and graphics cards are back in stock. You can set up your Twitter apps to send a notification to your phone as soon as those accounts post. I recommend following @mattswider, the editor in chief of the blog TechRadar, who relies on sources at retailers to post inventory updates on game consoles and graphics cards.

Credit…Sarah Kobos

On Black Friday, new Wi-Fi routers usually get deep discounts. But we should expect fewer of these deals this year.

That’s because of a domino effect related to shortages of so-called legacy nodes, a miniature chip used to create wireless sensors in networking equipment, said William Crockett, a vice president of Tanaka Precious Metals, a component manufacturer. Because that component is not readily available, companies may make fewer routers. That then means retailers are less likely to slash the prices of routers to avoid running out of them, he said.

Case in point: Last year, one of Amazon’s hottest Black Friday deals was a big discount for the Eero, its popular Wi-Fi router. This year, the Eero is conspicuously absent from Amazon’s list of top deals for Black Friday.

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company had promotions planned for Eero throughout the holiday season. So far, only the high-end Eero Pro models have received substantial discounts.

So if you or friends and family want an internet router, buy it now. In the unlikely event that the product goes on sale this Black Friday, you can ask the retailer for a retroactive price adjustment or return the item and buy it for the lower price.

Retailers typically unleash a plethora of low-cost laptops on Black Friday priced under $400, including Chromebooks and notebooks from manufacturers like Acer, Dell and HP.

Expect those deals to be scarcer this holiday. Computer makers are struggling with a shortage in USB controllers, the chip that allows a computer to talk to the USB port, Mr. Moorhead said. So manufacturers are prioritizing those parts for the production of more expensive laptops that generate higher profits, he said.

The upshot: You can expect deals on premium laptops, like MacBooks, but fewer discounts on the cheaper stuff.

There are a few rare deals online for low-cost notebooks — you just have to be proactive. Last week, Walmart sold an HP laptop for about $280, according to Pete King, a producer at Slickdeals, a website that tracks discounts online.

“If you haven’t started looking now, you’re already late to the game,” he said.

Finally, the chip shortage has affected analog chips, the circuits that gadgets rely on to manage power. The tech products most affected by this are audio accessories like speakers and earphones, which rely on analog chips to lower their power consumption and connect wirelessly to notebooks and smartphones.

The scarcity won’t affect all audio accessories, however. Mr. Moorhead noted that Sony and Apple develop their own chips for audio gear, so people probably won’t have trouble buying fancy earphones from the big tech companies this holiday.

That’s good news for fans of AirPods, but bad news for TikTokers and Gen Zers who are actively trying to make less popular earphones fashionable.

Shocked tennis star Naomi Osaka posts: Where is Peng Shuai?

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Shocked tennis star Naomi Osaka posts: Where is Peng Shuai?
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BEIJING — Tennis star Naomi Osaka says she’s been shocked to hear about a fellow player who has gone quiet since making a sexual assault allegation against a former top government official in China.

The Japanese former No. 1-ranked, four-time major winner posted on social media on Wednesday to join those asking: Where is Peng Shuai?

In a Twitter post — under the hashtag WhereIsPengShuai — Osaka wrote: “Not sure if you’ve been following the news but I was recently informed of a fellow tennis player that has gone missing shortly after revealing that she has been sexually abused. Censorship is never ok at any cost.”

The 24-year-old Osaka, who hasn’t played at tour level since her U.S. Open title defense ended in a third-round loss in September, said she hoped Peng and her family “are safe and ok.”

“I’m in shock of the current situation,” she wrote, “and I’m sending love and light her way.”

Other leading players including men’s No. 1 Novak Djokovic expressed shock at the situation, and the organizers of the women’s and men’s professional tennis tours have called for a full investigation into the allegations made by the two-time Grand Slam doubles champion.

Peng wrote in a lengthy social media post earlier this month that a former vice premier had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals. The post was removed from her verified account on Weibo, a leading Chinese social media platform, and China‘s entirely state-controlled media has suppressed all reporting on the case.

Reports of the allegations circulated overseas for more than a week before WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon issued a statement saying “Peng Shuai, and all women, deserve to be heard, not censored.”

“Her accusation about the conduct of a former Chinese leader involving a sexual assault must be treated with the utmost seriousness.”

The men’s tour followed Monday, with ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi saying tennis authorities were “deeply concerned by the uncertainty surrounding the immediate safety and whereabouts of WTA player Peng Shuai.”

“We are encouraged by the recent assurances received by WTA that she is safe and accounted for and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Gaudenzi said. “Separately, we stand in full support of WTA’s call for a full, fair and transparent investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Peng Shuai.”

Peng, 35, wrote that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals following a round of tennis three years ago. She said Zhang’s wife guarded the door during the incident.

Her post also said they had sex once seven years ago and she had feelings for him after that.

As is usual for retired Chinese officials, the 75-year-old Zhang dropped from public sight after his retirement in 2018 and is not known to have any intimate professional or political connections to current leaders.

Peng won 23 tour-level doubles titles, including at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014. She was a semifinalist in singles at the U.S Open in 2014. Peng hasn’t played at the top tier since the Qatar Open in February of last year, before restrictions imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peng also played in three Olympics – 2008, 2012, and 2016 – but the International Olympic Committee has remained silent about her allegations. The IOC and China are organizing the Beijing Winter Olympics starting Feb. 4.

Her accusation was the first against a prominent government official since the #MeToo movement took hold in China in 2018 before being largely tamped down by authorities the same year.

When asked during a daily briefing on Monday about Peng’s allegation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: “I have not heard of the matter, and it is not a diplomatic question.”

In response to another question at Wednesday’s daily briefing, Zhao said he had no knowledge of Peng’s situation.

“Do you think the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry is omnipotent?” Zhao asked a reporter. “I suggest you ask the relevant authorities about the relevant question.”

Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.

Loyola Chicago to join Atlantic 10, leave Missouri Valley

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Loyola Chicago to join Atlantic 10, leave Missouri Valley
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CHICAGO — Loyola Chicago has accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic 10 Conference and is leaving the Missouri Valley Conference.

The move announced Tuesday by the school and leagues takes effect on July 1. Adding Loyola as the conference’s 15th member gives the Atlantic 10 a foothold in Chicago and a boost in men’s basketball.

The Ramblers advanced to the Final Four in 2018 and reached the Sweet 16 last season. They are 2-0 under Drew Valentine, who was promoted to head coach after Porter Moser left for Oklahoma.

Loyola also won NCAA championships in men’s volleyball in 2014 and 2015.

“The A-10 is widely regarded as one of the top leagues in the country for its success in competition and in the classroom,” school president Dr. Jo Ann Rooney said. “This move will continue to grow our visibility at a national level, while at the same time placing us in a league with three other Jesuit institutions. We are confident this is a move that positions Loyola for even greater success, both athletically and academically, in the future.”

Loyola joins fellow Jesuit schools Fordham, Saint Joseph’s and Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10. It also renews rivalries with Dayton, Duquesne, La Salle and Saint Louis from its time in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.

Loyola moved from the Horizon League to the Missouri Valley in 2013, after Creighton left for the Big East.

“Loyola’s commitment to the high-level scholastic achievement of all of its students, coupled with its excellent athletic profile, from success in basketball, soccer and volleyball to outstanding facilities and resources is a perfect fit for the A-10,” Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said. “The addition expands the A-10 footprint into the Chicago market, giving the conference a presence in three of the top four media markets in the United States.”

Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.

NFL trend of going for it on fourth down picking up speed

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NFL trend of going for it on fourth down picking up speed
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Chargers offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi learned early on in his time working with first-year head coach Brandon Staley to be ready with a fourth-down call in nearly any situation.

Back in Week 3 with the Chargers facing fourth-and-9 in the final minute of a tie game against Kansas City, Staley opted to go for it instead of trying a long field goal. 

“When he said, ‘We’re going for it,’ I was a little surprised there,” Lombardi said. “After that, no, I don’t think that I’ll be surprised anymore.”

Teams going on fourth down is much less of a surprise these days than ever, even if it’s in the first half in their own territory, in a tie game when a field goal will provide a late lead, or when protecting a lead at the end of the game. 

Staley has been among the most aggressive, with that decision against the Chiefs leading to a go-ahead touchdown that left Patrick Mahomes little time to respond.

Staley ranks first in EdjSports’ rankings of coaches on fourth-down calls, edging usual leaders like Indianapolis’ Frank Reich and Baltimore’s John Harbaugh. 

Bill Belichick, whose memorable decision to go on fourth-and-2 late in a 2009 game against Peyton Manning and the Colts sparked a debate about fourth-down decisions, ranks last on the list. 

The analytics company has one of the best models for determining when NFL teams should go and when they should kick on fourth downs, using its win probability model that relies on historical play-by-play data adjusted for variables such as the strength and weaknesses of both teams, injuries and other factors. 

Coaches across the league are more willing than ever to keep the offense on the field instead of kicking on fourth down, even in their own territory or in situations their predecessors never would have contemplated. 

This past weekend, with his team up 23-19 with 31 seconds left, Washington coach Ron Rivera chose to run it on fourth and goal from the 1-yard line in an attempt to seal Washington’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If the run had failed, Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady would have got the ball back with an opportunity to lead a game-winning drive, but Rivera decided the upside was worth it rather than settling for the easy field goal.

“Why not try and win it right there?” said Rivera, whose call was rewarded with an Antonio Gibson touchdown. “Also part of the thinking too is if not, they got to go 99 (yards) to score a touchdown.”

EdjSports’ model agreed with the decision — saying Rivera’s choice to go for it gave Washington a 99.5% chance of winning the game compared to 97.8% if the team kicked the field goal. “It was the correct call,” the analytics company wrote on its website.

This year, Washington has attempted 21 fourth-down conversions. That’s the third-most in the league, behind only Detroit and Cleveland. In 2019, the year before Rivera was hired, Washington went for it just 14 times.

The leaguewide shift began in the 2017 season when then-Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s aggressive fourth-down strategy helped Philadelphia win the Super Bowl. 

John Harbaugh and the analytically sound Ravens took it a step further in 2019 when the skills of Lamar Jackson helped deliver 17 successful fourth-down tries. Now, teams are going for it more than ever.

Fourth-down tries jumped more than 10% from 2019 to 2020 and were up an additional 16% through nine weeks this season. Attempts are up more than 73% over 2017 when Pederson first got attention for his success in Philadelphia.

“I think there’s a bit of a herd mentality with coaches,” said EdjSports co-founder Frank Frigo. “There’s definitely coaches out there that have gotten this for a while and been paying attention. Once others start doing it, it kind of snowballs a little bit.” 

There is still plenty of progress coaches could make, but there remains some hesitancy. 

“I do listen to analytics a ton, and I think it makes a lot of sense, but when it comes down to fourth-and-1, it’s about how you feel in the moment,” said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who said he considers field position, what plays he has on his sheet, how well his line is blocking, the weather, and all sorts of variables before making a final call.

“There’s never a right or wrong answer,” notes Shanahan, “until after the play.”

Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.

Adele tops Swift in musician faceoff, nearly beats Oscars

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Adele tops Swift in musician faceoff, nearly beats Oscars
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NEW YORK (AP) – Adele attracted 10.3 million viewers to a busy Sunday night special where she debuted new music, facilitated a marriage proposal and dished with Oprah Winfrey about her divorce and workout routine.

The Nielsen company said the CBS show nearly had a bigger audience than April’s Oscars ceremony and, when delayed viewers are eventually figured in, will likely exceed it.

Probably the two most popular musicians of the day both had weekend television spotlights to hawk new material. Taylor Swift’s 10-minute performance of her song “All of Me” on “Saturday Night Live” reached 5.8 million viewers, and the clip has already been seen more than 2.5 million times on YouTube.

The Academy Awards reached 10.4 million viewers on the night it was televised in April, the audience increasing to 10.7 million adding people who saw it on tape within seven days.

Live events generally do poorly in delayed viewing, leading to CBS’ confidence that Adele will eventually pass Oscar. CBS is likely to rerun the musician’s special, too.

Sunday was strong for CBS. The late afternoon Green Bay-Seattle football game, with 22.7 million viewers, was the most-watched event on television all week. That helped “60 Minutes,” which directly followed the football game, to its biggest audience since January.

CBS led all of the networks with an average of 6.1 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 5.7 million, Fox had 3.83 million, ABC had 3.75 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 920,000 and Telemundo had 850,000.

ESPN led the cable networks with a prime-time average of 2.91 million viewers last week. Fox News Channel had 2.37 million, Hallmark had 1.44 million, MSNBC had 1.12 million and Paramount had 897,000.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.2 million.

For the week of Nov. 8-14, the 20 most popular programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. NFL Football: Kansas City at Las Vegas, NBC, 16.74 million.

2. NFL Football: Baltimore at Miami, Fox, 12.92 million.

3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12.55 million.

4. NFL Football: Chicago at Pittsburgh, ESPN, 12.11 million.

5. “NFL Pregame,” NBC, 11.83 million.

6. “NFL Postgame,” Fox, 11.34 million.

7. “Adele: One Night Only,” CBS, 10.33 million.

8. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 9.56 million.

9. “NFL Pregame,” Fox, 7.68 million.

10. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 7.49 million.

11. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.32 million.

12. “FBI,” CBS, 7.17 million.

13. “NFL Pregame,” ESPN, 7.07 million.

14. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.04 million.

15. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.85 million.

16. “CMA Awards,” ABC, 6.833 million.

17. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 6.83 million.

18. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 6.63 million.

19. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.46 million.

20. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.18 million.

Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.

Middle East dispatch: Chess on the rise again in a cradle of the game

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Middle East dispatch: Chess on the rise again in a cradle of the game
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A cradle of chess may be celebrating a new birth.

Having learned the game from India centuries before the game caught on in the West, the Persians and the Arabs could be considered the first great chess dynasties. Iran contributed the game’s touchstone phrase, “Shah mat” (checkmate) to English and virtually every other European language. The first recorded game of chess in history was played between a Baghdad historian and his student in the 10th century.

And Middle Eastern chess analysts composed some of the game’s first chess problems, with motifs such as forks, pins and waiting moves still valid today.

Chess dominance moved on, however, with the emergence of the modern game — first to Renaissance Italy and Spain, then to France in the 18th century, Britain and Germany in the 19th century, the Soviet Union in the 20th century and now perhaps China and the U.S. in the 21st century.

But the rise of Iranian-born super-GM Alireza Firouzja, even though he now plays for France, may be a small sign the wheel is about to turn again. With his win last week at the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament in Latvia, the rising superstar earned a spot in next year’s world championship candidates tournament and confirmed many projections that he may one day contend for the world crown.

Iraq’s rebuilding national chess program now ranks 85th in the FIDE global pecking order, and there was some fine play in the country’s 2021 national title tournament in Baghdad, won by FM Abdulsattar Abdulwahhab Ahmed earlier this month. FM Akar Ali Salih Salih appeared to be channeling some of those old Arab chess problems in the witty way he hunted down the queen of expert Sabah Nori Rabeea in their game from the event.

White takes a solid but unambitious approach in this Queen’s Pawn Game, then gives up both his one strong point and the initiative to Black after 13. Nb3 Qc7 14. Nxc5?! (if nothing else, Rabeea had total control of the d4-square, but this throws it away; after 14. Nfd4 d5 15. Bf3 Ne4 16. Qe2, White is still OK) bxc5 15. Nd2 d5. With more space and two good bishops, Ali Salih is already better.

The fun begins when White’s queen finds herself caught in a web where struggling to get out only makes things worse: 17. Nb3?! (closing what turns out to be a critical escape route, but 17. Qxa7?? Ra8 already show the perils awaiting the White queen) Rd6! 18. Bg4?! (again, White should hightail it with 18. Qf4 while he has the chance) Ra6 19. Qb5 (Qd7 Qb6 20. Ra1 Rd8) e6! — blocking the bishop’s attack on the rook while clearing e7 for the bishop.

It’s over on 20. Rc2? (now there’s no turning back, but on 20. Qe2 Rxa2 21. Ra1 Rxa1 22. Rxa1 Qb6 23. Nd2 a5, Black is a pawn up and holds all the positional trumps) c4!, and one can almost hear the cell door clanging shut.

Even tactical tricks can’t save Her Majesty here: 21. Nd4 Ra5 22. Qb4 (Nxe6 Rxb5 23. Nxc7 Rxc7 wins a piece) Be7 23. Nb5 Qd8! 24. Nd6 Bxd6 25. Qxb7 Rb8! (trapping the queen once again) 26. Qc6 Rb6, and White played 27. Qb7 before resigning a hopeless fight.

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Firouzja attracted early notice with games like today’s second offering, a tough win over German GM Matthias Bluebaum from the 2017 Aeroflot Open in Moscow. The tactics in this Caro-Kann Advanced are fiendishly complex, but you never get the sense Firouzja is in over his head.

After 21. Qxb4 Na6 22. Qd2 Rae8, White is down the exchange for a pawn, but keeps playing to open lines for the attack with 23. Nc3 Nc7 24. d5! Nxd5 25. Nxd5 Qxd5 26. Qc2. The pressure to defend finally gets to Black, opening the way to a neat combination.

Thus: 26…Kc8 27. Rd1 Qf3? (see diagram; this turns out to be a bad square for the queen, whereas a draw would have been a just result after 27…Qe4 28. Qc5 Qxf4 29. Qxc6+ Qc7 30. Qa8+ Qb8 31. Qc6+ Qc7 32. Qa8+, with perpetual check) 28. Qf5+! Kb7 29. Rd7+ Ka8 (Kb6 30. Bc7+) 30. Rxa7+! Kxa7 31. Bb8+ Kxb8 32. Qxf3. White’s material edge is slight, but his queen proves vastly superior to Bluebaum’s rooks and loose pawns.

The helplessness of a rook against connected passed pawns is demonstrated yet again in the game’s finale, after 38. h6 f5 39. gxf5! (Qxf5?! Rxh6 40. Kg2 Rhh7 would be a much harder slog) Rxg6+ 40. fxg6 Re6 41. g7 Rg6+ 42. Kf1 and the White pawns can’t be stopped; Black resigned.

Rabeea-Ali Salih, Iraq National Championship, Baghdad, October 2021

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. dxc5 Na6 4. Bf4 Nxc5 5. e3 g6 6. c3 Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Be2 d6 9. O-O b6 10. Rc1 Bb7 11. Bg5 Rc8 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. Nb3 Qc7 14. Nxc5 bxc5 15. Nd2 d5 16. Qa4 Rfd8 17. Nb3 Rd6 18. Bg4 Ra6 19. Qb5 e6 20. Rc2 c4 21. Nd4 Ra5 22. Qb4 Be7 23. Nb5 Qd8 24. Nd6 Bxd6 25. Qxb7 Rb8 26. Qc6 Rb6 27. Qb7 and White resigns.

Firouzja-Bluebaum, Aeroflot Open, Moscow, February 2017

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. c3 Ne7 6. Be2 Ng6 7. h4 h5 8. Ng5 f6 9. exf6 gxf6 10. Nh3 Kd7 11. Nf4 Nxf4 12. Bxf4 Qe8 13. c4 dxc4 14. Bxc4 Qg6 15. Qb3 b5 16. O-O Rg8 17. g3 Qg4 18. Re1 Bb4 19. Bxe6+ Bxe6 20. Rxe6 Qxe6 21. Qxb4 Na6 22. Qd2 Rae8 23. Nc3 Nc7 24. d5 Nxd5 25. Nxd5 Qxd5 26. Qc2 Kc8 27. Rd1 Qf3 28. Qf5+ Kb7 29. Rd7+ Ka8 30. Rxa7+ Kxa7 31. Bb8+ Kxb8 32. Qxf3 Re6 33. Qxh5 Rge8 34. Qf7 R8e7 35. Qg6 Kb7 36. h5 Kb6 37. g4 c5 38. h6 f5 39. gxf5 Rxg6+ 40. fxg6 Re6 41. g7 Rg6+ 42. Kf1 Black resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.

In Another Trump Book, a Journalist’s Belated Awareness Steals the Show

Enspirers | Editorial Board
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In Another Trump Book, a Journalist’s Belated Awareness Steals the Show
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By the looks of his formidable résumé, the veteran Beltway journalist Jonathan Karl shouldn’t startle all that easily. “Karl has covered every major beat in Washington, D.C., including the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the State Department,” his author bio notes, “and has reported from the White House under four presidents and 14 press secretaries.” Until recently he was the chief White House correspondent for ABC News — a perch that placed him, as he put it in the title of his previous book, “Front Row at the Trump Show.”

Yet in his new book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” Karl comes across as almost poignantly ingenuous and polite to a fault, repeatedly flummoxed by what he saw in the last year of the Trump administration. “Front Row,” which had the unfortunate timing of being published in March 2020, before the consequences of Trump’s governance were fully laid bare, began with a solemn tribute to “objectivity and balance” and a complaint that “the mainstream media coverage of Donald Trump is relentlessly and exhaustively negative.” Just a year-and-a-half later, after 750,000 American Covid deaths and an attack on the Capitol, Karl allows that the “Trump show” may have in fact been more sinister than mere theatrics after all.

“I have never wavered from my belief that journalists are not the opposition party and should not act like we are,” Karl maintains in “Betrayal.” “But the first obligation of a journalist is to pursue truth and accuracy. And the simple truth about the last year of the Trump presidency is that his lies turned deadly and shook the foundations of our democracy.”

“Betrayal” is presented as an inside look at what happened in the last months of the Trump White House, beginning on Feb. 10, 2020. At the time, news about a novel coronavirus in China was percolating throughout the United States, but staffers in the White House seemed more immediately threatened by Johnny McEntee, a 29-year-old former college quarterback who went from carrying President Trump’s bags to becoming the director of the Presidential Personnel Office — “responsible for the hiring and firing of more than 4,000 political appointees across the federal government.”

McEntee saw it as his duty to purge from the executive branch anyone deemed insufficiently loyal to the president; less than a year later, on Jan. 1, McEntee would send a text message to Mike Pence’s chief of staff insisting that the vice president had the authority to overturn the results of the November election. He pointed speciously to an episode involving Thomas Jefferson as an example.

The full (and absurd) text of the memo is one of several scoops Karl offers in this book, along with another memo from McEntee’s office, sent less than a month before the election, outlining why Defense Secretary Mark Esper should be fired. (Esper’s supposed transgressions included focusing the department on Russia and “actively pushing for ‘diversity and inclusion.’”) Karl also says that Trump threatened to create his own political party, backing down only when Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, countered by threatening to give away the valuable email list of his 40 million supporters for free — “effectively making it impossible for Trump to make money by renting it out.”

Credit…ABC News

McDaniel and Trump have since denied any such standoff — Trump even denied it to Karl’s face, in one of the last interviews he granted for “Betrayal.” During the same interview, Trump reminisced about the speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before the attack on the Capitol, calling it “a very beautiful time with extremely loving and friendly people.” Karl, at least inwardly, was aghast. “I was taken aback by how fondly he remembers a day I will always remember as one of the darkest I have ever witnessed,” he writes, adding that Trump seemed to justify the death threats made against his own vice president. “It boggled my mind,” Karl says.

It did? The author’s expressions of surprise are so frequent and over-the-top that they are perhaps the most surprising parts of this book. “Betrayal” is less insightful about the Trump White House and more revealing of Karl’s own gradual, extremely belated awareness that something in the White House might in fact be awry. Events strike him as “wacky,” “crazy,” “nuts.” He delves into the outlandish conspiracy theories around the presidential election, earnestly explaining why each of them is wrong. He scores a number of on-the-record interviews with Trumpworld insiders — nearly all of whom insist that even as they publicly sided with Trump, they were bravely telling the president some very tough truths in private.

Karl recalls Sept. 10, 2020, as a turning point for him: the day he asked “the most forcefully confrontational question I had ever asked of a president — or any other political leader.” By that point Trump had been playing down the pandemic for half a year, insisting the coronavirus “affects virtually no one.” Karl, who until that moment had “cringed” when he heard other reporters use the word “lie,” was sitting in his front-row seat at a briefing and moved to press Trump: “Why did you lie to the American people, and why should we trust anything you have to say now?”

It was a good question, though it simply got turned, like so many exchanges during those briefings, into more Trump theater, with the president scowling and calling Karl “a disgrace to the ABC television network.” You also wonder how Karl, who mentions in his previous book that George W. Bush took the country to war with Iraq under false pretenses, had spent two decades covering politics without asking anything so “forcefully confrontational” before. “Front Row” includes a conversation in which Karl informed Trump that calling the press “the enemy of the people” was perhaps dangerous: “‘Some sick person might take your words to heart,’ I told him. ‘I hope people take my words to heart,’ he said, missing the point that I was warning of possible violence against journalists.”

Or perhaps it wasn’t Trump who was missing the point of that exchange — something that didn’t seem to occur to Karl, apparently so entrenched in his establishmentarian assumptions that until very recently he deemed certain distressing possibilities simply unfathomable. More than a year before the 2020 election, Karl asked John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, what would happen if Trump lost and refused to concede. Kelly was sure that Trump would leave — and “if he tried to chain himself” to his Oval Office desk, “they would simply cut the chains and carry him out.”

Karl recalls being impressed by Kelly’s tone of confident authority. “I didn’t ask any more questions, but I still had a few,” he writes — a strange admission for the chief Washington correspondent of a major network. “The scenario described by John Kelly seemed too disturbing — and too absurd — to consider any further. I tried not to think about it again.”

The Trump era blew a hole through all kinds of institutional norms and presuppositions, revealing vulnerabilities and blind spots. It probably speaks to Karl’s decency as a person that he didn’t want to contemplate anything so terrible, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.

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