title: Jason Whitlock

text: Whitlock has also been published in "Vibe", "Playboy", and "The Sporting News". In the June 2008 issue of "Playboy", he wrote a 5,000-word column questioning America's incarceration and drug-war policies. "Playboy" headlined the column "The Black KKK", which provoked Whitlock into writing two columns, one in the "Kansas City Star" and another on Foxsports.com, criticizing "Playboy" editorial director Chris Napolitano for the misleading and inflammatory headline.


title: Cricket bat

text: A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making ground to avoid a run out, by holding the bat and touching the ground with it. The length of the bat may be no more than 38 inches (96.5 cm) and the width no more than 4.25 inches (10.8 cm). Its use is first mentioned in 1624. Since 1979, a law change has provided that cricket bats can only be made from wood.


title: Cricket bat

text: The "blade" of a cricket bat is a wooden block that is generally flat on the striking face and with a ridge on the reverse (back) which concentrates wood in the middle where the ball is generally hit. The bat is traditionally made from willow wood, specifically from a variety of white willow called cricket bat willow ("Salix alba" var. "caerulea"), treated with raw (unboiled) linseed oil, which has a protective function. This variety of willow is used as it is very tough and shock-resistant, not being significantly dented nor splintering on the impact of a cricket ball at high speed, while also being light in weight. The face of the bat is often covered with a protective film by the user. In 1900 Percy Stuart Surridge developed a reinforced toe.


title: Cricket bat

text: The blade is connected to a long cylindrical cane "handle", similar to that of a mid-20th-century tennis racquet, by means of a "splice". The handle is usually covered with a rubber grip. Bats incorporate a wooden spring design where the handle meets the blade. The current design of a cane handle spliced into a willow blade through a "tapered" splice was the invention in the 1880s of Charles Richardson, a pupil of Brunel and the first Chief Engineer of the Severn Railway Tunnel. Spliced handles had been used before this but tended to break at the corner of the join. The taper provides a more gradual transfer of load from the bat's blade to the handle and avoids this problem.


title: Cricket bat

text: The edges of the blade closest to the handle are known as the "shoulders" of the bat, and the bottom of the blade is known as the "toe" of the bat.


title: Cricket bat

text: Bats were not always this shape. Before the 18th century bats tended to be shaped similarly to a modern hockey sticks. This may well have been a legacy of the game's reputed origins. Although the first forms of cricket are obscure, it may be that the game was first played using shepherd's crooks.


title: Cricket bat

text: The bat generally recognised as the oldest bat still in existence is dated 1729 and is on display in the Sandham Room at The Oval in London.


title: Cricket bat

text: When first purchased, most bats are not ready for immediate use and require knocking-in to allow the soft fibres to strike a hard new cricket ball without causing damage to the bat, and allowing full power to be transferred to the shot. Knocking-in involves striking the surface with an old cricket ball or a special mallet. This compacts the soft fibres within the bat and reduces the risk of the bat snapping. The bat may also need raw linseed oil, which fills in the gaps between the fibres.


title: Cricket bat

text: Raw linseed oil is used, rather than boiled linseed oil, as the raw form is also a drying oil but very slow "drying", and so the surface remains tacky. Applied regularly, this has a protective effect on the wood and makes it less sensitive to humidity changes in the atmosphere, which could cause warping or splitting. Another important factor is that it increases the surface friction of the ball to bat surface, giving better control of the shot. A worn surface can be noticed by the player, indicating that re-oiling is needed.


title: Cricket bat

text: Law 5 of the Laws of Cricket state that the length of the bat may be no more than 38 in (965 mm), the width no more than 4.25 in (108 mm), the overall depth no more than 2.64 in (67 mm) and edge no more than 1.56 in (40 mm). Appendix B of the Laws of Cricket set out more precise specifications. This rule was introduced following the Monster Bat Incident of 1771.


title: Cricket bat

text: The 2017 update to the Laws saw no changes to the maximum length of the bat, which is still 38 inches/96.52 cm, but a new specification stated that the edge of the bat cannot be more than 1.56 inches / 4 cm while the depth cannot be more than 2.64 inches / 6.7 cm. The umpires are now given a bat gauge so they can check the legality of the bat at any time.


title: Cricket bat

text: Bats are available in a range of sizes, with some manufacturers offering unique variations. Commonly found are children's sizes 0 to 6, youth size Harrow and adult sizes. SH (Short Handle) is the most common adult size, whilst long handle and long blade options are also available. Children's sizes increase in length and width as the size increase. Although most adult bats will be the maximum width permitted (4.25 inches), no generally available cricket bat is the maximum length of 38 inches, indeed very few exceed 35 inches.


title: Cricket bat

text: Various companies have over the years tried new shapes that come within the laws of the game to make a name for themselves and to improve sales. In the 1960s the first shoulderless bats appeared from Slazenger. This allowed more of the weight to be redistributed to the "sweet spot" of the blade providing more power to each stroke, whilst still having good balance and light "pick up". This style of bat was made famous by Lance Cairns's six sixes in a match played in 1983.


title: Cricket bat

text: The 1970s saw double-sided bats from Warsop Stebbing. With the advent of Twenty20 cricket, double-sided bats are experiencing renewed interest.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 1974 the first GN100 Scoop was released; this was the first bat to turn shaping on its head by removing the wood from the centre of the rear of the bat. By removing this wood, the bat became lighter, its sweet spot grew and its pick up improved. Even though there is less material, strong strokes are still possible if well-timed. It allows weaker players to play many strokes they would otherwise omit from their repertoire. This bat quickly became a big seller and various scooped bats such as the GN500, Dynadrive and Viper have been released by Gray Nicolls ever since, including a re-release of the Scoop itself for the 2012 English season. The removal of wood from the rear has been copied by many other companies without much critical acclaim.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 1979 Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee briefly used a ComBat aluminium metal bat. After some discussion with the umpires, and after complaints by the English team that it was damaging the ball, which was later proved untrue, he was urged by the Australian captain Greg Chappell to revert to a wooden bat. The rules of cricket were shortly thereafter amended, stating that the blade of a bat must be made entirely of wood.


title: Cricket bat

text: In the 1980s Stuart Surridge & Co developed the Turbo. Designed by John Surridge, the bat was formed from two pieces of willow which reduced the flex and increased the transfer of power. The bat was used by Graham Gooch for his record 333 against India in 1990.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 2005 Kookaburra released a new type of bat that had a carbon fibre-reinforced polymer support down the spine of the bat. It was put on the bat to provide more support to the spine and blade of the bat, thus prolonging the life of the bat. The first player to use this new bat in international cricket was Australian Ricky Ponting. Kookaburra withdrew it after advice was received by the ICC from MCC that it was illegal under Law six.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 2005 Newbery created a carbon fibre handle, the C6 and C6+, which weighed 3 ounces/85 grams less than a standard laminated cane and rubber handle. It was used by Newbery and Puma for 3 years before the concept was copied by Gray Nicolls with a hollow plastic tube. However, this provoked the MCC to change the law on materials in handles amid fears that the new technology would lead to an increase in the distance the ball was hit. Now only 10% of the volume of the handle can be other than cane.


title: Cricket bat

text: Also in late 2008, SAFBats created a cricket bat with an offset edge. The edge offsetting allowed for an extended middle, better swing weight and increased performance without compromising the cricket bat's balance. The production models were available in 2009, and the bat won awards in 2010 and 2012.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 2004, Newbery created the Uzi, with a truncated blade and elongated handle for the new Twenty20 format of the game. This change allowed more wood to be placed in the middle, as more attacking shots are played in the shorter version of the game. In 2009, an extreme version of the Newbery Uzi shape named the Mi3 was launched by Mongoose. The design is unusual in that the blade is 33% shorter than a conventional bat and the handle is 43% longer. Launched with a fanfare of publicity, it proclaimed the idea of not defending the ball in the T20 format and purely playing attacking shots.


title: Cricket bat

text: On 11 March 2010, Mongoose launched its range in India with the announcement of Matthew Hayden as the brand ambassador. Stuart Law, the former Australian Test player, called it "a half-brick on a stick". The bat was used by Hayden in the 2010 version of the IPL. Gareth Andrew, the Worcestershire all-rounder, scored the maiden 100 with an MMi3 in professional cricket when he hit 100 off 58 balls at the Oval in 2010 against Surrey.


title: Cricket bat

text: In 2008, Lekka Cricket launched a T20 format bat, the Big Hitter. Black Cat Cricket then launched a T20 format bat, the Joker, in 2009. These worked on a similar principle to other T20 bats with the blade length reduced by one inch and an inch longer handle, but uniquely reduced the width of the bat to 4 inches in an adult bat.


title: Cricket bat

text: Modern bats are usually hand-made in the Indian sub-continent (India or Pakistan) due to the low cost of labour. However a few specialists in England, Australia, and New Zealand still make bats, mostly with use of a CNC lathe.


title: Cricket bat

text: Traditional Indian cricket bats are made in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Kashmir they are made out of willow found in northern India. Some bats made in Kashmir are of international standards and are/were used by national players in India Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.


title: Cricket bat

text: The willow used in making bats in Kashmir was brought in by the British, who ruled India, during the 1820s. The industry combines traditional tools with modern technology. Some of the districts where these bats are made in Kashmir are Anantnag, Baramula, and Pahalgam.


title: Cricket bat

text: The species is identical ("Salix alba" var. "caerulea") to English willow and the only difference is that the willow is not grown in England. Kashmir willow bats play well and no evidence has been presented that the wood or finished product has different properties or plays any differently. However, Kashmir willow bats sell for significantly lower prices than English willow, on the belief that the English willow bats are superior. Kashmir willow bats are very common in social and amateur competitions, although English willow is seen as a more "serious" cricketer's bat.


title: Cricket bat

text: Much of the English Willow cricket bat market consists of bats which are actually made in India from imported English willow blanks. It would be virtually impossible to detect "counterfeit" English willow bats made from Kashmir willow. The marketing of English willow bats is therefore a trust exercise between the buyer and the brand, that the brand has not inflated their supply of "English willow" bats by sourcing blanks from India as well as England. This risk of substitution is a major hurdle for small brands looking to get bats manufactured in India. Resources are needed to ensure the integrity and custody of the English willow at all stages of production.


title: Cricket bat

text: English willow bats with minor visual defects such as grains which are not perfectly straight, or discolourations, are also cheaper. Geoffrey Boycott, former England captain and one of the most successful Test players in history, has stated that such bats will play just as well as better-looking ones and that players ought to buy the cheaper ones to get the same performance at a better price. It is unlikely that any difference in performance can be noted by most players from imperfections unless they are severe. Provided the willow has been handled and prepared competently after felling and during the bat's creation, the much more important factor is the pickup (or weight distribution) of the bat, and its suitability to the player's style. Different shaping techniques create a higher or lower centre of balance, and different "sweet spot" size and location.


title: Cricket bat

text: One issue presented as the case against Kashmir willow is the warmer growing region. The timber is said to be firmer, with less spring. However, this is a common issue for English willow bats, too. Due to the shortage of stock and demand for English willow, many small plantations on private property have been established in ideal conditions, with trees maturing as young as 10 to 12 years. This has meant a much wider grain in the wood, sometimes leading to bats with as few as 6 or even 4 grains. Bats with 8 or fewer grains are held to be harder and take longer to play well, but also to last longer. Bats with 16 or more grains are held to be softer and more playable immediately, but with a reduced lifespan. 8 to 12 grains is commonly the desirable range.


title: Cricket bat

text: Australia is another country growing "Salix alba" var. "caerulea" for cricket bats, with the entire Australian stock descended from staves sent to Australia in the 1930s from the then-England captain to his Australian counterpart. Australia grew its own willow for decades, until Slazenger bought the company which owned most of the plantations. Slazenger's only interest was in apparel and the plantations were mostly sold and destroyed. In the 1990s a project was launched to again commercially grow cricket bat willow. There are now plantations in Victoria and New South Wales, but not Queensland, where all forms of willow cultivation are banned.


title: Cricket bat

text: With the English willow ("Salix alba" var. "caerulea") trees diminishing numbers across England, researchers have tried to invent modern alternatives to cricket bats made of wood from the willow tree. According to a study published in The Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology by Dr. Darshil Shah and Ben TInkler-Davies of the University of Cambridge, cricket bats made of wood from the bamboo plant provide higher strength than a traditional willow bat and hence, can be thinner and lighter than a willow bat, providing strength similar to a willow bat. The bamboo bat the researchers used was a specially made prototype laminated bat made by sticking layers of bamboo wood together. The sweet spot on the bamboo bat performed 19% better than that on a willow bat.


title: Cricket bat

text: Alternatives to willow, such as bamboo can further drive cricket's global expansion in regions where the willow tree does not grow, such as China and South-East Asia, where bamboo thrives. This would make cricket bats made of bamboo substantially cheaper than traditional willow bats and thus make the sport more accessible.


title: Cricket bat

text: The Marylebone Cricket Club issued a statement saying that a bat made from bamboo would be illegal under the current set of laws, as Law 5.3.2 of the Laws of Cricket states that in a cricket bat, "The blade shall consist solely of wood..." Since bamboo is a grass, this Law would need to be changed to allow bamboo bats. The statement further read that the issue of bamboo bats and other alternatives to willow would be discussed in the next Laws sub-committee meeting.


title: Cricket bat

text: A number of organisations have made giant cricket bats and claimed them as the largest bat in the world. According to the "Laws of Cricket", a bat can have a maximum width of 4.25 inches (108 mm), so these bats cannot be used in an official game. , "Guinness World Records" state that the largest bat is long and was made by Classic Mall Development Company in Chennai, India.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In cryptography, post-quantum cryptography (sometimes referred to as quantum-proof, quantum-safe or quantum-resistant) refers to cryptographic algorithms (usually public-key algorithms) that are thought to be secure against a cryptanalytic attack by a quantum computer. The problem with currently popular algorithms is that their security relies on one of three hard mathematical problems: the integer factorization problem, the discrete logarithm problem or the elliptic-curve discrete logarithm problem. All of these problems could be easily solved on a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Even though current quantum computers lack processing power to break any real cryptographic algorithm, many cryptographers are designing new algorithms to prepare for a time when quantum computing becomes a threat. This work has gained greater attention from academics and industry through the PQCrypto conference series since 2006 and more recently by several workshops on Quantum Safe Cryptography hosted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Institute for Quantum Computing.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In contrast to the threat quantum computing poses to current public-key algorithms, most current symmetric cryptographic algorithms and hash functions are considered to be relatively secure against attacks by quantum computers. While the quantum Grover's algorithm does speed up attacks against symmetric ciphers, doubling the key size can effectively block these attacks. Thus post-quantum symmetric cryptography does not need to differ significantly from current symmetric cryptography.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: This approach includes cryptographic systems such as learning with errors, ring learning with errors (ring-LWE), the ring learning with errors key exchange and the ring learning with errors signature, the older NTRU or GGH encryption schemes, and the newer NTRU signature and BLISS signatures. Some of these schemes like NTRU encryption have been studied for many years without anyone finding a feasible attack. Others like the ring-LWE algorithms have proofs that their security reduces to a worst-case problem. The Post Quantum Cryptography Study Group sponsored by the European Commission suggested that the Stehle–Steinfeld variant of NTRU be studied for standardization rather than the NTRU algorithm. At that time, NTRU was still patented. Studies have indicated that NTRU may have more secure properties than other lattice based algorithms.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: This includes cryptographic systems such as the Rainbow (Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar) scheme which is based on the difficulty of solving systems of multivariate equations. Various attempts to build secure multivariate equation encryption schemes have failed. However, multivariate signature schemes like Rainbow could provide the basis for a quantum secure digital signature. There is a patent on the Rainbow Signature Scheme.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: This includes cryptographic systems such as Lamport signatures, the Merkle signature scheme, the XMSS, the SPHINCS, and the WOTS schemes. Hash based digital signatures were invented in the late 1970s by Ralph Merkle and have been studied ever since as an interesting alternative to number-theoretic digital signatures like RSA and DSA. Their primary drawback is that for any hash-based public key, there is a limit on the number of signatures that can be signed using the corresponding set of private keys. This fact had reduced interest in these signatures until interest was revived due to the desire for cryptography that was resistant to attack by quantum computers. There appear to be no patents on the Merkle signature scheme and there exist many non-patented hash functions that could be used with these schemes. The stateful hash-based signature scheme XMSS developed by a team of researchers under the direction of Johannes Buchmann is described in RFC 8391.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Note that all the above schemes are one-time or bounded-time signatures, Moni Naor and Moti Yung invented UOWHF hashing in 1989 and designed a signature based on hashing (the Naor-Yung scheme) which can be unlimited-time in use (the first such signature that does not require trapdoor properties).


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: This includes cryptographic systems which rely on error-correcting codes, such as the McEliece and Niederreiter encryption algorithms and the related Courtois, Finiasz and Sendrier Signature scheme. The original McEliece signature using random Goppa codes has withstood scrutiny for over 40 years. However, many variants of the McEliece scheme, which seek to introduce more structure into the code used in order to reduce the size of the keys, have been shown to be insecure. The Post Quantum Cryptography Study Group sponsored by the European Commission has recommended the McEliece public key encryption system as a candidate for long term protection against attacks by quantum computers.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: This cryptographic system relies on the properties of supersingular elliptic curves and supersingular isogeny graphs to create a Diffie-Hellman replacement with forward secrecy. This cryptographic system uses the well studied mathematics of supersingular elliptic curves to create a Diffie-Hellman like key exchange that can serve as a straightforward quantum computing resistant replacement for the Diffie-Hellman and elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman key exchange methods that are in widespread use today. Because it works much like existing Diffie–Hellman implementations, it offers forward secrecy which is viewed as important both to prevent mass surveillance by governments but also to protect against the compromise of long term keys through failures. In 2012, researchers Sun, Tian and Wang of the Chinese State Key Lab for Integrated Service Networks and Xidian University, extended the work of De Feo, Jao, and Plut to create quantum secure digital signatures based on supersingular elliptic curve isogenies. There are no patents covering this cryptographic system.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Provided one uses sufficiently large key sizes, the symmetric key cryptographic systems like AES and SNOW 3G are already resistant to attack by a quantum computer. Further, key management systems and protocols that use symmetric key cryptography instead of public key cryptography like Kerberos and the 3GPP Mobile Network Authentication Structure are also inherently secure against attack by a quantum computer. Given its widespread deployment in the world already, some researchers recommend expanded use of Kerberos-like symmetric key management as an efficient way to get post quantum cryptography today.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In cryptography research, it is desirable to prove the equivalence of a cryptographic algorithm and a known hard mathematical problem. These proofs are often called "security reductions", and are used to demonstrate the difficulty of cracking the encryption algorithm. In other words, the security of a given cryptographic algorithm is reduced to the security of a known hard problem. Researchers are actively looking for security reductions in the prospects for post quantum cryptography. Current results are given here:


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In some versions of Ring-LWE there is a security reduction to the shortest-vector problem (SVP) in a lattice as a lower bound on the security. The SVP is known to be NP-hard. Specific ring-LWE systems that have provable security reductions include a variant of Lyubashevsky's ring-LWE signatures defined in a paper by Güneysu, Lyubashevsky, and Pöppelmann. The GLYPH signature scheme is a variant of the Güneysu, Lyubashevsky, and Pöppelmann (GLP) signature which takes into account research results that have come after the publication of the GLP signature in 2012. Another Ring-LWE signature is Ring-TESLA. There also exists a "derandomized variant" of LWE, called Learning with Rounding (LWR), which yields " improved speedup (by eliminating sampling small errors from a Gaussian-like distribution with deterministic errors) and bandwidth." While LWE utilizes the addition of a small error to conceal the lower bits, LWR utilizes rounding for the same purpose.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: The security of the NTRU encryption scheme and the BLISS signature is believed to be related to, but not provably reducible to, the Closest Vector Problem (CVP) in a Lattice. The CVP is known to be NP-hard. The Post Quantum Cryptography Study Group sponsored by the European Commission suggested that the Stehle–Steinfeld variant of NTRU which does have a security reduction be studied for long term use instead of the original NTRU algorithm.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar signature schemes are asymmetric cryptographic primitives based on multivariate polynomials over a finite field formula_1. Bulygin, Petzoldt and Buchmann have shown a reduction of generic multivariate quadratic UOV systems to the NP-Hard Multivariate Quadratic Equation Solving problem.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In 2005, Luis Garcia proved that there was a security reduction of Merkle Hash Tree signatures to the security of the underlying hash function. Garcia showed in his paper that if computationally one-way hash functions exist then the Merkle Hash Tree signature is provably secure.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Therefore, if one used a hash function with a provable reduction of security to a known hard problem one would have a provable security reduction of the Merkle tree signature to that known hard problem.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: The Post Quantum Cryptography Study Group sponsored by the European Commission has recommended use of Merkle signature scheme for long term security protection against quantum computers.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: The McEliece Encryption System has a security reduction to the Syndrome Decoding Problem (SDP). The SDP is known to be NP-hard The Post Quantum Cryptography Study Group sponsored by the European Commission has recommended the use of this cryptography for long term protection against attack by a quantum computer.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In 2016, Wang proposed a random linear code encryption scheme RLCE which is based on McEliece schemes. RLCE scheme can be constructed using any linear code such as Reed-Solomon code by inserting random columns in the underlying linear code generator matrix.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Security is related to the problem of constructing an isogeny between two supersingular curves with the same number of points. The most recent investigation of the difficulty of this problem is by Delfs and Galbraith indicates that this problem is as hard as the inventors of the key exchange suggest that it is. There is no security reduction to a known NP-hard problem.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: One common characteristic of many post-quantum cryptography algorithms is that they require larger key sizes than commonly used "pre-quantum" public key algorithms. There are often tradeoffs to be made in key size, computational efficiency and ciphertext or signature size. The table lists some values for different schemes at a 128 bit post-quantum security level.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: A practical consideration on a choice among post-quantum cryptographic algorithms is the effort required to send public keys over the internet. From this point of view, the Ring-LWE, NTRU, and SIDH algorithms provide key sizes conveniently under 1KB, hash-signature public keys come in under 5KB, and MDPC-based McEliece takes about 1KB. On the other hand, Rainbow schemes require about 125KB and Goppa-based McEliece requires a nearly 1MB key.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: The fundamental idea of using LWE and Ring LWE for key exchange was proposed and filed at the University of Cincinnati in 2011 by Jintai Ding. The basic idea comes from the associativity of matrix multiplications, and the errors are used to provide the security. The paper appeared in 2012 after a provisional patent application was filed in 2012.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In 2014, Peikert presented a key transport scheme following the same basic idea of Ding's, where the new idea of sending additional 1 bit signal for rounding in Ding's construction is also utilized. For somewhat greater than 128 bits of security, Singh presents a set of parameters which have 6956-bit public keys for the Peikert's scheme. The corresponding private key would be roughly 14,000 bits.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In 2015, an authenticated key exchange with provable forward security following the same basic idea of Ding's was presented at Eurocrypt 2015, which is an extension of the HMQV construction in Crypto2005. The parameters for different security levels from 80 bits to 350 bits, along with the corresponding key sizes are provided in the paper.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: For 128 bits of security in NTRU, Hirschhorn, Hoffstein, Howgrave-Graham and Whyte, recommend using a public key represented as a degree 613 polynomial with coefficients formula_2. This results in a public key of 6130 bits. The corresponding private key would be 6743 bits.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: For 128 bits of security and the smallest signature size in a Rainbow multivariate quadratic equation signature scheme, Petzoldt, Bulygin and Buchmann, recommend using equations in formula_3 with a public key size of just over 991,000 bits, a private key of just over 740,000 bits and digital signatures which are 424 bits in length.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: In order to get 128 bits of security for hash based signatures to sign 1 million messages using the fractal Merkle tree method of Naor Shenhav and Wool the public and private key sizes are roughly 36,000 bits in length.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: For 128 bits of security in a McEliece scheme, The European Commissions Post Quantum Cryptography Study group recommends using a binary Goppa code of length at least formula_4 and dimension at least formula_5, and capable of correcting formula_6 errors. With these parameters the public key for the McEliece system will be a systematic generator matrix whose non-identity part takes formula_7 bits. The corresponding private key, which consists of the code support with formula_4 elements from formula_9 and a generator polynomial of with formula_6 coefficients from formula_9, will be 92,027 bits in length


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: The group is also investigating the use of Quasi-cyclic MDPC codes of length at least formula_12 and dimension at least formula_13, and capable of correcting formula_14 errors. With these parameters the public key for the McEliece system will be the first row of a systematic generator matrix whose non-identity part takes formula_15 bits. The private key, a quasi-cyclic parity-check matrix with formula_16 nonzero entries on a column (or twice as much on a row), takes no more than formula_17 bits when represented as the coordinates of the nonzero entries on the first row.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Barreto et al. recommend using a binary Goppa code of length at least formula_18 and dimension at least formula_19, and capable of correcting formula_20 errors. With these parameters the public key for the McEliece system will be a systematic generator matrix whose non-identity part takes formula_21 bits. The corresponding private key, which consists of the code support with formula_18 elements from formula_23 and a generator polynomial of with formula_20 coefficients from formula_23, will be 40,476 bits in length.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: For 128 bits of security in the supersingular isogeny Diffie-Hellman (SIDH) method, De Feo, Jao and Plut recommend using a supersingular curve modulo a 768-bit prime. If one uses elliptic curve point compression the public key will need to be no more than 8x768 or 6144 bits in length. A March 2016 paper by authors Azarderakhsh, Jao, Kalach, Koziel, and Leonardi showed how to cut the number of bits transmitted in half, which was further improved by authors Costello, Jao, Longa, Naehrig, Renes and Urbanik resulting in a compressed-key version of the SIDH protocol with public keys only 2640 bits in size. This makes the number of bits transmitted roughly equivalent to the non-quantum secure RSA and Diffie-Hellman at the same classical security level.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: As a general rule, for 128 bits of security in a symmetric-key-based system, one can safely use key sizes of 256 bits. The best quantum attack against generic symmetric-key systems is an application of Grover's algorithm, which requires work proportional to the square root of the size of the key space. To transmit an encrypted key to a device that possesses the symmetric key necessary to decrypt that key requires roughly 256 bits as well. It is clear that symmetric-key systems offer the smallest key sizes for post-quantum cryptography.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Device fingerprints are created based on uniquely defined embedded information of the device board and then each fingerprint is authenticated in a distributed secure, upon successful authentication hash of the fingerprints is stored on the distributed ledger for continuous authentication, upon successful authentication based on fingerprint , data is encrypted and decrypted based on the information using asymmetric key based system.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Device immutable fingerprint is a code based approach to provide quantum protected secure network authentication, where each endpoint is identified and authenticated based on the immutable fingerprint first then data encryption and decryption takes place based on asymmetric key based system.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: A public-key system demonstrates a property referred to as perfect forward secrecy when it generates random public keys per session for the purposes of key agreement. This means that the compromise of one message cannot lead to the compromise of others, and also that there is not a single secret value which can lead to the compromise of multiple messages. Security experts recommend using cryptographic algorithms that support forward secrecy over those that do not. The reason for this is that forward secrecy can protect against the compromise of long term private keys associated with public/private key pairs. This is viewed as a means of preventing mass surveillance by intelligence agencies.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Both the Ring-LWE key exchange and supersingular isogeny Diffie-Hellman (SIDH) key exchange can support forward secrecy in one exchange with the other party. Both the Ring-LWE and SIDH can also be used without forward secrecy by creating a variant of the classic ElGamal encryption variant of Diffie-Hellman.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Any authenticated public key encryption system can be used to build a key exchange with forward secrecy.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: Open Quantum Safe (OQS) project was started in late 2016 and has the goal of developing and prototyping quantum-resistant cryptography. It aims to integrate current post-quantum schemes in one library: liboqs. liboqs is an open source C library for quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. It initially focuses on key exchange algorithms. It provides a common API suitable for post-quantum key exchange algorithms, and will collect together various implementations. liboqs will also include a test harness and benchmarking routines to compare performance of post-quantum implementations. Furthermore, OQS also provides integration of liboqs into OpenSSL.


title: Post-quantum cryptography

text: One of the main challenges in post-quantum cryptography is considered to be the implementation of potentially quantum safe algorithms into existing systems. There are tests done, for example by Microsoft Research implementing PICNIC in a PKI using Hardware security modules. Test implementations for Google's NewHope algorithm have also been done by HSM vendors.


title: Apsara

text: An apsaras or apsara ( ' [also '], ) is a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hinduism and Buddhist culture. They figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literature and painting of many Indian and Southeast Asian cultures. There are two types of apsaras: "laukika" (worldly) and "daivika" (divine). Urvasi, Menaka, Rambha, Tilottama and Ghritachi are the most famous among them. They are most often depicted in the court and discretion of Indra.


title: Apsara

text: Apsaras are widely known as "Apsara" ( ) in Khmer, and also called as "Accharā" in Pāli, or "Bidadari" (Malay, Maranao), "Biraddali" (Tausug, Sinama), "Hapsari/Apsari" or "Widadari/Widyadari" (Javanese), "Helloi" (Meitei) and "Apsorn" (). English translations of the word "Apsara" include "nymph", "fairy", "celestial nymph", and "celestial maiden".


title: Apsara

text: In Hinduism, apsaras are beautiful, supernatural female beings. They are youthful and elegant, and superb in the art of dancing. They are often wives of the Gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra. They dance to the music made by the Gandharvas, usually in the palaces of the gods, entertain and sometimes seduce devatas and rishis. As ethereal beings who inhabit the skies, and are often depicted taking flight, or at service of a god, they may be compared to angels.


title: Apsara

text: Apsaras are said to be able to change their shape at will and rule over the fortunes of gaming and gambling. Apsaras are sometimes compared to the Muses of ancient Greece, with each of the 26 Apsaras at Indra's court representing a distinct aspect of the performing arts. They are associated with fertility rites. The Bhagavata Purana also states that the apsaras were born from Kashyapa and Muni.


title: Apsara

text: The origin of 'apsara' is the Sanskrit अप्सरस्, "apsaras" (in the stem form, which is the dictionary form). NB The stem form ends in 's' as distinct from, e.g. the nominative singular "Ramas/Ramaḥ" (the deity Ram in Hindi), whose stem form is "Rama". The nominative singular form is अप्सरास् "apsarās", or अप्सरा: "apsarāḥ" when standing alone, which becomes अप्सरा "apsarā" in Hindi, from which in turn the English 'apsara' presumably is derived. The Monier-Williams Dictionary gives the etymology as अप् + √सृ, "going in the waters or between the waters of the clouds".


title: Apsara

text: The Rigveda tells of an apsara who is the wife of Gandharva; however, the Rigveda also seems to allow for the existence of more than one apsara.


title: Apsara

text: The only apsara specifically named is Urvashi. An entire hymn deals with the colloquy between Urvashi and her mortal lover Pururavas. Later Hindu scriptures allow for the existence of numerous apsaras, who act as the handmaidens of Indra or as dancers at his celestial court.


title: Apsara

text: In many of the stories related in the Mahabharata, apsaras appear in important supporting roles. The epic contains several lists of the principal Apsaras, which lists are not always identical. Here is one such list, together with a description of how the celestial dancers appeared to the residents and guests at the court of the gods:


title: Apsara

text: Ghritachi and Menaka and Rambha and Purvachitti and Swayamprabha and Urvashi and Misrakeshi and Dandagauri and Varuthini and Gopali and Sahajanya and Kumbhayoni and Prajagara and Chitrasena and Chitralekha and Saha and Madhuraswana, these and others by thousands, possessed of eyes like lotus leaves, who were employed in enticing the hearts of persons practising rigid austerities, danced there. And possessing slim waists and fair large hips, they began to perform various evolutions, shaking their deep bosoms, and casting their glances around, and exhibiting other attractive attitudes capable of stealing the hearts and resolutions and minds of the spectators.


title: Apsara

text: The Mahabharata documents the exploits of individual apsaras, such as Tilottama, who rescued the world from the rampaging asura brothers Sunda and Upasunda, and Urvashi, who attempted to seduce the hero Arjuna.


title: Apsara

text: A story type or theme appearing over and over again in the Mahabharata is that of an apsara sent to distract a sage or spiritual master from his ascetic practices. One story embodying this theme is that recounted by the epic heroine Shakuntala to explain her own parentage. Once upon a time, the sage Viswamitra generated such intense energy by means of his asceticism that Indra himself became fearful. Deciding that the sage would have to be distracted from his penances, he sent the apsara Menaka to work her charms. Menaka trembled at the thought of angering such a powerful ascetic, but she obeyed the god's order. As she approached Viswamitra, the wind god Vayu tore away her garments. Seeing her thus disrobed, the sage abandoned himself to lust and they consummated, during which Viswamitra's asceticism was put on hold. As a consequence, Menaka gave birth to a daughter, whom she abandoned on the banks of a river. That daughter was Shakuntala herself, the narrator of the story.


title: Apsara

text: "Natya Shastra", the principal work of dramatic theory for Sanskrit drama, lists the following apsaras: Manjukesi, Sukesi, Misrakesi, Sulochana, Saudamini, Devadatta, Devasena, Manorama, Sudati, Sundari, Vigagdha, Vividha, Budha, Sumala, Santati, Sunanda, Sumukhi, Magadhi, Arjuni, Sarala, Kerala, Dhrti, Nanda, Supuskala, Supuspamala and Kalabha.


title: Apsara

text: Apsaras represent an important motif in the stone bas-reliefs of the Angkorian temples in Cambodia (8th–13th centuries AD), however, not all female images are considered to be apsaras. In harmony with the Indian association of dance with apsaras, Khmer female figures that are dancing or are poised to dance are considered "apsaras"; female figures, depicted individually or in groups, who are standing still and facing forward in the manner of temple guardians or custodians are called "devatas".


title: Apsara

text: Angkor Wat, the largest Angkor temple (built-in 1113-1150 AD), features both "Apsaras" and "Devata", however, the devata type are the most numerous with more than 1,796 in the present research inventory. Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30–40 cm as seen below) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110  cm) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period. Some devatas appear with arms around each other and seem to be greeting the viewer. "The devatas seem to epitomize all the elements of a refined elegance," wrote Marchal.


title: Apsara

text: The bas-reliefs of Angkorian temples have become an inspiration of Khmer classical dance. The indigenous ballet-like performance art of Cambodia is frequently called "Apsara Dance". The dance was created by the Royal Ballet of Cambodia in the mid-20th century under the patronage of Queen Sisowath Kossamak of Cambodia. The role of the apsara is played by a woman, wearing a tight-fitting traditional dress with gilded jewelry and headdress modelled after Angkor bas-reliefs, whose graceful, sinuous gestures are codified to narrate classical myths or religious stories.


title: Apsara

text: In the Indonesian language throughout medieval times, apsaras are also known as 'bidadari', being conflated with the 'vidyadharis' (from Sanskrit word "vidhyadhari": "vidhya", 'knowledge'; "dharya", 'having, bearer, or bringer') known as "Bidadari" in the modern Indonesian, the females of the vidyādharas, another class of celestial beings in Indian mythology. 'Vidyādhara' literally means 'possessed of science or spells', and refers to 'a kind of supernatural being ... possessed of magical power' or 'fairy' according to Monier-Williams Dictionary. The bidadaris are heavenly maidens, living in the svargaloka or in celestial palace of Indra, described in Balinese dedari (bidadari or apsara) dance.


title: Apsara

text: Traditionally apsaras are described as celestial maidens living in Indra's heaven (Kaéndran). They are well known for their special task: being sent to earth by Indra to seduce ascetics who by their severe practices may become more powerful than the gods. This theme occurs frequently in Javanese traditions, including the "Kakawin Arjunawiwaha", written by mpu Kanwa in 1030 during the reign of a king Airlangga. The story tells that Arjuna, in order to defeat the giant Niwatakawaca, engaged in meditation and asceticism, whereupon Indra sent apsaras to seduce him. Arjuna, however, managed to conquer his lust and then to win the ultimate weapons from the gods to defeat the giant.


title: Apsara

text: Later in the Javanese tradition the apsara was also called "Hapsari", also known as "Widodari" (from Sanskrit word vidyādhari). The Javanese Hindu-Buddhist tradition also influenced Bali. In Balinese dance, the theme of celestial maidens often occurred. Dances such as "Sanghyang Dedari" and "Legong" depicted divine maidens in their own way. In the court of Mataram Sultanate the tradition of depicting heavenly maidens in dances still alive and well. The Javanese court dances of Bedhaya portray apsaras.


title: Apsara

text: However, after the adoption of Islam, bidadari is equated with houri, the heavenly maiden mentioned in the Quran, in which God stated that the 'forbidden pearls' of heaven are for those men who have resisted temptation and borne life's trials. Islam spread in the Malay archipelago when Arabic traders came to trade spices with the Malays; at that time, Hinduism formed the basis of the Malay culture, but syncretism with the Islamic religion and culture spawned the idea of a Bidadari. It is usually seen as a prized offer to those who lived a lifestyle in service to and pleasing to God; after death, the Bidadari was the man's wife or wives, depending on what type of person he was. The worthiness of a man who was offered Bidadari depended upon his holiness: how often he prayed, how much he turned away from the 'outside world', and how little he heeded worldly desires.


title: Apsara

text: Images of apsaras are found in several temples of ancient Java dating from the era of the Sailendra dynasty to that of the Majapahit empire. The apsara celestial maidens might be found as decorative motifs or also as integral parts of a story in bas-relief. Images of apsaras can be found on Borobudur, Mendut, Prambanan, Plaosan, and Penataran.


title: Apsara

text: At Borobudur apsaras are depicted as divinely beautiful celestial maidens, pictured either in standing or in flying positions, usually holding lotus blossoms, spreading flower petals, or waving celestial clothes as if they were wings enabling them to fly. The temple of Mendut near Borobudur depicted groups of devatas, divine beings flying in heaven, which included apsaras. In the Prambanan temple compound, especially in Vishnu temple, along with the gallery, some images of male devata are found flanked by two apsaras.


title: Apsara

text: In the ancient Manipur culture of the Meitei people of northeastern India, apsaras are considered as celestial nymphs or "hellois" as the flying creatures resembling the human female body attracting the male wanderers or any knights who lost their ways in the woods. They were known for their beauty, glamour, magical powers and enchanting supernatural Androphilic Magnetism. They are believed to be seven in number and are the daughters of the sky god or the "Soraren" deity.


title: Apsara

text: Apsaras were also an important motif in the art of Champa, medieval Angkor's neighbour to the east along the coast of what is now central Vietnam. Especially noteworthy are the depictions of apsaras in the Tra Kieu Style of Cham art, a style which flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries AD.


title: Apsara

text: Apsaras are often depicted in East Asian Buddhist art. They are referred to as feitian () in Chinese.


title: Apsara

text: They are depicted as flying figures in the mural paintings and sculptures of Buddhist cave sites in China such as in the Mogao Caves, Yulin Caves, Tianlongshan grottoes, the Yungang, and Longmen Grottoes. They are also depicted on tiles of pagoda, such as Xiuding-si pagoda.


title: Apsara

text: They may also be depicted as dancers or musicians holding musical instruments such as flute, pipa, or sheng. Generally, they are depicted with a long skirt fluttering in the wind.


title: Apsara

text: The Asuras also inspired the Askyas Powers of the tabletop roleplay game Gandariah Lords of Arcanas universe.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic ethnic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Pechenegs were mentioned as "Bjnak", "Bjanak" or "Bajanak" in medieval Arabic and Persian texts, as "Be-ča-nag" in Classical Tibetan documents, and as "Pačanak-i" in works written in Georgian. Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them as "Patzinakoi" or "Patzinakitai". In medieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to as "Pizenaci", "Bisseni" or "Bessi". East Slavic peoples use the terms "Pečenegi" or "Pečenezi" (plural of "Pečeneg"), while the Poles mention them as "Pieczyngowie" or "Piecinigi". The Hungarian word for Pecheneg is "Besenyő"; the Romanian term is "Pecenegi".


title: Pechenegs

text: According to Max Vasmer and some other researchers the ethnonym may have derived from the Old Turkic word for "brother-in-law, relative” ("baja", "baja-naq" or "bajinaq; Kyrgyz: baja, " and ), implying that it initially referred to an "in-law related clan or tribe".


title: Pechenegs

text: In Mahmud Kashgari's 11th-century work Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, Pechenegs were described as "a Turkic nation living around the country of the Rum", where "Rum" was the Turkic word for the Eastern Roman Empire or Anatolia, and "a branch of Oghuz Turks"; he subsequently described the Oghuz as being formed of 22 branches, of which the Pecheneg were the 19th.


title: Pechenegs

text: Pechenegs are mentioned as one of 24 ancient tribes of Oghuzes by 14th-century statesman and historian of Ilkhanate-ruled Iran Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in his work Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh ("Compendium of Chronicles") with the meaning of the ethnonym as "the one who shows eagerness". The 17th-century Khan of the Khanate of Khiva and historian Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur mentions the Pechenegs as "bechene" among 24 ancient tribes of Turkmens (or Oghuzes) in his book "Shajara-i Tarākima" (“Genealogy of the Turkmen") and provides for its meaning as "the one who makes".


title: Pechenegs

text: Three of the eight Pecheneg "provinces" or clans were collectively known as Kangars. According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Kangars received this denomination because "they are more valiant and noble than the rest" of the people "and that is what the title Kangar signifies". Because no Turkic word with a similar meaning is known, Ármin Vámbéry connected the ethnonym to the Kirghiz words "kangir" ("agile"), "kangirmak" ("to go out riding") and "kani-kara" ("black-blooded"), while Carlile Aylmer Macartney associated it with the Chagatai word "gang" ("chariot"), semantically related to the Turkic Gaoche.


title: Pechenegs

text: Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term "(Kängär As", mentioned in Old Turkic texts) deriving from the Tocharian word for stone "(kank)" and the ethnonym "As", suggesting that they were Tocharian-speaking or at least formed a confederation consisting of Tocharian, Eastern Iranian and Bulgaric Turkic elements. Their connection with Eastern Iranian elements is hinted at in the remark of al-Biruni regarding a people that "are of the race of al-Lān and that of al-Ās and their language is a mixture of the languages of Khwarazmians and the Badjanak.". If the latter assumption is valid, the Kangars' ethnonym suggests that (East) Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people but Spinei concedes that Pechenegs were of "a predominantly Turkic character... beyond any doubt". This may be mirrored in the Old Rus translation of Josephus Flavius (ed. Meshcherskiy, 454) which adds "the Yas, as is known, descended from the Pecheneg tribe." On the basis of their fragmentary linguistic remains, scholars view them as Common Turkic-speakers, most probably Kipchak (Németh, followed by Ligeti) or Oguz (Baskakov). Hammer-Purgstall classifies the Chinese Kangju and Byzantine Kangar as purely Turkic name variants of the Kangly; however, Wang Pu's institutional historical work Tang Huiyao apparently distinguishes the "Kang(ju)" from the "Kangheli" (aka "Kangly"). Menges saw in "Kang-ar-as" the plural-suffix "-as", and Klyashtorny the Turkic numerus collectivus "-ar-", "-er-".


title: Pechenegs

text: Mahmud al-Kashgari, an 11th-century man of letters who specialized in Turkic dialects argued that the language spoken by the Pechenegs was a variant of the Cuman and Oghuz idioms. He suggested that foreign influences on the Pechenegs gave rise to phonetical differences between their tongue and the idiom spoken by other Turkic peoples. Anna Komnene likewise stated that the Pechenegs and the Cumans shared a common language. Although the Pecheneg language itself died out centuries ago, the names of the Pecheneg "provinces" recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus prove that the Pechenegs spoke a Turkic language. The Pechenegs are thought to have belonged to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic family, but their language is poorly documented and therefore difficult to further classify.


title: Pechenegs

text: Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos lists eight Pecheneg tribal groupings, four on each side of the Dnieper river, reflecting the bipartite left-right Turkic organization. These eight tribes were in turn divided into 40 sub-tribes, probably clans. Constantine VII also records the names of eight former tribal leaders who had been leading the Pechenegs when they were expelled by the Khazars and Oghuzes. Golden, following Németh and Ligeti, proposes that each tribal name consists of two parts: the first part being an equine coat color, the other the tribal ruler's title.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Erdim, Čur, and Yula tribes formed the Qangar/Kenger (Greek: Καγγαρ) and were deemed "more valiant and noble than the rest".


title: Pechenegs

text: According to Omeljan Pritsak, the Pechenegs are descendants from the ancient Kangars who originate from Tashkent. The Orkhon inscriptions listed the Kangars among the subject peoples of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. Pritsak says that the Pechenegs' homeland was located between the Aral Sea and the middle course of the Syr Darya, along the important trade routes connecting Central Asia with Eastern Europe, and associates them with Kangars.


title: Pechenegs

text: According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing in c. 950, Patzinakia, the Pecheneg realm, stretched west as far as the Siret River (or even the Eastern Carpathian Mountains), and was four days distant from "Tourkias" (i.e. Hungary).


title: Pechenegs

text: Paul Pelliot originated the proposal that the "Book of Sui"a 7th-century Chinese workpreserved the earliest record on the Pechenegs. The book mentioned a people named "Bĕirù", who had settled near the "Ēnqū" and "Alan" peoples (identified as Onogurs and Alans, respectively), to the east of "Fulin" (or the Eastern Roman Empire). Victor Spinei emphasizes that the Pechenegs' association with the "Bĕirù" is "uncertain". He proposes that an 8th-century Uighur envoy's report, which survives in Tibetan translation, contains the first certain reference to the Pechenegs. The report recorded an armed conflict between the "Be-ča-nag" and the "Hor" (Uyghurs or Oghuz Turks) peoples in the region of the river Syr Darya.


title: Pechenegs

text: Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 820 – 912 CE), Mahmud al-Kashgari (11th century), Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100–1165), and many other Muslim scholars agree that the Pechenegs belonged to the Turkic peoples. The "Russian Primary Chronicle" stated that the "Torkmens, Pechenegs, Torks, and Polovcians" descended from "the godless sons of Ishmael, who had been sent as a chastisement to the Christians".


title: Pechenegs

text: The Turkic Khaganate collapsed in 744 which gave rise to a series of intertribal confrontations in the Eurasian steppes. The Karluks attacked the Oghuz Turks, forcing them to launch a westward migration towards the Pechenegs' lands. The Uighur envoy's report testifies that the Oghuz and Pecheneg waged war against each other already in the 8th century, most probably for the control of the trade routes. The Oghuz made an alliance with the Karluks and Kimaks and defeated the Pechenegs and their allies in a battle near the Lake Aral before 850, according to the 10th-century scholar, Al-Masudi. Most Pechenegs launched a new migration towards the Volga River, but some groups were forced to join the Oghuz. The latter formed the 19th tribe of the Oghuz tribal federation in the 11th century.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Pechenegs who left their homeland settled between the Ural and Volga rivers. According to Gardizi and other Muslim scholars who based their works on 9th-century sources, the Pechenegs' new territory was quite large, with a 30-day-walk extension, and were bordered by the Cumans, Khazars, Oghuz Turks and Slavs.


title: Pechenegs

text: The same sources also narrate that the Pechenegs made regular raids against their neighbors, in particular against the Khazars and the latter's vassals, the Burtas, and sold their captives. The Khazars made an alliance with the Ouzes against the Pechenegs and attacked them from two directions. Outnumbered by the enemy, the Pechenegs were forced into a new westward migration. They marched across the Khazar Khaganate, invaded the dwelling places of the Hungarians, and expelled them from the lands along the Kuban River and the upper course of the river Donets. There is no consensual date for this second migration of the Pechenegs: Pritsak argues that it took place around 830, but Kristó suggests that it could hardly occur before the 850s.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Pechenegs settled along the rivers Donets and Kuban. It is plausible that the distinction between the "Turkic Pechenegs" and "Khazar Pechenegs" mentioned in the 10th-century "Hudud al-'alam" had its origin in this period. The "Hudud al-'Alam"a late 10th-century Persian geographydistinguished two Pecheneg groups, referring to those who lived along the Donets as "Turkic Pechenegs", and to those along the Kuban as "Khazarian Pechenegs". Spinei proposes that the latter denomination most probably refers to Pecheneg groups accepting Khazar suzerainty, implies that some Pecheneg tribes had been forced to acknowledge the Khazars supremacy.


title: Pechenegs

text: In addition to these two branches, a third group of Pechenegs existed in this period: Constantine Porphyrogenitus and Ibn Fadlan mention that those who decided not to leave their homeland were incorporated into the Oghuz federation of Turkic tribes.


title: Pechenegs

text: However, it is uncertain whether this group's formation is connected to the Pechenegs' first or second migration (as it is proposed by Pritsak and Golden, respectively). According to Mahmud al-Kashgari, one of the Üçok clans of the Oghuz Turks was still formed by Pechenegs in the 1060s.


title: Pechenegs

text: In the 9th century, the Byzantines became allied with the Pechenegs, using them to fend off other, more dangerous tribes such as Kievan Rus' and the Magyars (Hungarians).


title: Pechenegs

text: The Uzes, another Turkic steppe people, eventually expelled the Pechenegs from their homeland; in the process, they also seized most of their livestock and other goods. An alliance of Oghuz, Kimeks, and Karluks was also pressing the Pechenegs, but another group, the Samanids, defeated that alliance. Driven further west by the Khazars and Cumans by 889, the Pechenegs in turn drove the Magyars west of the Dnieper River by 892.


title: Pechenegs

text: Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I employed the Pechenegs to help fend off the Magyars. The Pechenegs were so successful that they drove out the Magyars remaining in Etelköz and the Pontic steppes, forcing them westward towards the Pannonian plain, where they later founded the Hungarian state.


title: Pechenegs

text: By the 9th and 10th centuries, Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeast Europe and the Crimean Peninsula. Although an important factor in the region at the time, like most nomadic tribes their concept of statecraft failed to go beyond random attacks on neighbours and spells as mercenaries for other powers.


title: Pechenegs

text: In the 9th century the Pechenegs began a period of wars against Kievan Rus'. For more than two centuries they had launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars (like the 920 war on the Pechenegs by Igor of Kiev, reported in the "Primary Chronicle"). The Pecheneg wars against Kievan Rus' caused the Slavs from Walachian territories to gradually migrate north of the Dniestr in the 10th and 11th centuries. Rus'/Pecheneg temporary military alliances also occurred however, as during the Byzantine campaign in 943 led by Igor. In 968 the Pechenegs attacked and besieged Kiev; some joined the Prince of Kiev, Sviatoslav I, in his Byzantine campaign of 970–971, though eventually they ambushed and killed the Kievan prince in 972. According to the "Primary Chronicle", the Pecheneg Khan Kurya made a chalice from Sviatoslav's skull, in accordance with the custom of steppe nomads. The fortunes of the Rus'-Pecheneg confrontation swung during the reign of Vladimir I of Kiev (990–995), who founded the town of Pereyaslav upon the site of his victory over the Pechenegs, followed by the defeat of the Pechenegs during the reign of Yaroslav I the Wise in 1036. Shortly thereafter, other nomadic peoples replaced the weakened Pechenegs in the Pontic steppe: the Cumans and the Torks. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky ("History of Ukraine-Ruthenia"), after its defeat near Kiev the Pecheneg Horde moved towards the Danube, crossed the river, and disappeared out of the Pontic steppes.


title: Pechenegs

text: Pecheneg mercenaries served under the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. After centuries of fighting involving all their neighbours—the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Khazaria, and the Magyars—the Pechenegs were annihilated as an independent force in 1091 at the Battle of Levounion by a combined Byzantine and Cuman army under Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Alexios I recruited the defeated Pechenegs, whom he settled in the district of Moglena (today in Macedonia) into a tagma "of the Moglena Pechenegs". Attacked again in 1094 by the Cumans, many Pechenegs were slain or absorbed. The Byzantines defeated the Pechenegs again at the Battle of Beroia in 1122, on the territory of modern-day Bulgaria. With time the Pechenegs south of the Danube lost their national identity and became fully assimilated, mostly with Romanians and Bulgarians. Significant communities settled in the Hungarian kingdom, around 150 villages.


title: Pechenegs

text: In the 12th century, according to Byzantine historian John Kinnamos, the Pechenegs fought as mercenaries for the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in southern Italy against the Norman king of Sicily, William the Bad. A group of Pechenegs was present at the battle of Andria in 1155.


title: Pechenegs

text: The Pechenegs as a group were last mentioned in 1168 as members of Turkic tribes known in the chronicles as the "Chorni Klobuky (Black Hats)". It is likely that the Pecheneg population of Hungary was decimated by the Mongol invasion of Hungary, but names of Pecheneg origin continue to be reported in official documents. The title of "Comes Bissenorum" (Count of the Pechenegs) lasted for at least another 200 years.


title: Pechenegs

text: In 15th-century Hungary, some people adopted the surname "Besenyö" (Hungarian for "Pecheneg"); they were most numerous in the county of Tolna. One of the earliest introductions of Islam into Eastern Europe came about through the work of an early 11th-century Muslim prisoner who was captured by the Byzantines. The Muslim prisoner was brought into the Besenyő territory of the Pechenegs, where he taught and converted individuals to Islam. In the late 12th century, Abu Hamid al-Gharnati referred to Hungarian Pechenegs – probably Muslims – living disguised as Christians. In the southeast of Serbia, there is a village called Pečenjevce founded by Pechenegs. After war with Byzantium, the remnants of the tribes found refuge in the area, where they established their settlement.


title: North Coast 500

text: The North Coast 500 is a scenic route around the north coast of Scotland, starting and ending at Inverness Castle. The route is also known as the NC500 and was launched in 2015, linking many features in the north Highlands of Scotland in one touring route.


title: North Coast 500

text: The route has increased visitor numbers to parts of the north of Scotland, which has brought economic benefits to some areas. The increase in traffic has also led to more instances of bad and dangerous driving, as well as damage to the roads and concerns about the environmental impact.


title: North Coast 500

text: The route runs through the traditional counties of Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness.


title: North Coast 500

text: Working clockwise, the route starts at Inverness and runs via Muir of Ord, Applecross (including the Bealach na Bà), Gairloch, Ullapool, Scourie, Durness, Castle of Mey, Thurso, John o' Groats, Wick, Dunrobin Castle, Dingwall then back to Muir of Ord and Inverness. The route of the North Coast 500 takes in many areas of the North Highland Way, a walking route along Scotland's North Coast.


title: North Coast 500

text: The North Coast 500 was launched in March 2015 by the Tourism Project Board of the North Highland Initiative (NHI), in an attempt to work with all aspects of the tourism sector to bring unified benefits to businesses across the route. It was identified that a gap existed in the market within the North Highlands for a tourism offering that included each county of the area (Caithness, Sutherland & Ross-shire) and that the North Coast 500 would address that. The initiative was supported by Visit Scotland and Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE).


title: North Coast 500

text: In 2015, the route was named fifth in the "Top 5 Coastal Routes in the World" listing by "Now Travel Magazine". It has been described as "Scotland's Route 66".


title: North Coast 500

text: The NC500 is also regarded as a challenge for endurance cyclists. In August 2015, adventure cyclist Mark Beaumont established the record for the 516 mile route, completing it in 37 hours and 58 minutes. On 18 June 2016, former pro cyclist and Commonwealth Games medallist James McCallum completed the ride in 31 hours 23 minutes, holding the record until September 19, 2020, when Josh Quigley completed it in 31 hours 19 minutes and 8 seconds.


title: North Coast 500

text: On June 4, 2021, endurance cyclist and Durness native Robbie Mitchell comprehensively beat the record to take the time down to 29 hours, 5 minutes and 42 seconds.


title: North Coast 500

text: A survey commissioned by HIE suggested that the NC500 led to 29,000 more people visiting the area in its first year, who collectively spent £9 million. Much of the economic benefit may have gone to the larger towns, rather than the smaller settlements on the route. A Highland councillor commented in 2019 that visitors tended to stay in the area for only one night when using the route, in contrast with stays of several nights before it opened. In 2017, writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish questioned the promotion of the route, given that the Scottish Government had adopted strong positions on climate change and renewable energy: "Should we really be promoting the idea of people driving petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles for 500 miles around the north of Scotland?"


title: North Coast 500

text: The increase in traffic has led to problems on local roads – drivers not using passing places to allow others to overtake, groups driving in convoys, damaged roads, speeding and excessively slow driving blocking others. On four occasions in 2018, tacks had been scattered across the road, although the motive was never established. Some drivers have boasted of completing the route in under 24 hours and some locals have renamed it the Indy 500, after the US car race, because of some drivers' behaviour. Journey times for locals are up to three times longer during the peak driving season than at quieter times. During 2016 – the first full year of its operation – the number of deaths and serious accidents on the main roads forming the route increased by 45% compared with 2014. In 2021, reports of dirty camping and strained local infrastructure led to suggestions that the route had become a victim of its own success.


title: North Coast 500

text: The route's popularity led to the launch of a similar but shorter route through the Central Highlands and Perthshire, the Heart 200.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007. He has won three team gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In 2000, Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov and became the Classical World Chess Champion. He defended his title in 2004 against Peter Leko, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006. As a result, Kramnik became the first undisputed World Champion, holding both the FIDE and Classical titles, since Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In 2007, Kramnik lost the title to Viswanathan Anand, who won the World Chess Championship 2007 tournament ahead of Kramnik. He challenged Anand at the World Chess Championship 2008 to regain his title, but lost. Nonetheless, he remained a top player; he reached a peak rating of 2817 in October 2016, which makes him the joint-eighth highest-rated player of all time.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik publicly announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January 2019. He stated he intends to focus on projects relating to chess for children and education.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Vladimir Kramnik was born in the town of Tuapse, on the shores of the Black Sea. His father's birth name was Boris Sokolov, but he took his stepfather's surname when his mother (Vladimir's grandmother) remarried. His mother Irina Fedorovna is Ukrainian and is a music teacher, his biological father Boris Sokolov is Russian painter and sculptor. As a child, Vladimir Kramnik studied in the chess school established by Mikhail Botvinnik. His first notable result in a major tournament was his gold medal win as first reserve for the Russian team in the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila. His selection for the team caused some controversy in Russia at the time, as he was only a FIDE Master. However, his selection was supported by Garry Kasparov. He scored eight wins, one draw, and no losses, a performance of 2958, which won a gold medal for best rating performance.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: The following year, Kramnik played in the very strong tournament in Linares. He finished fifth, beating the then world number three, Vasyl Ivanchuk, along the way. He followed this up with a string of good results, but had to wait until 1995 for his first major tournament win at normal time controls, when he won the strong Dortmund tournament, finishing it unbeaten.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In 1995, Kramnik served as a second for Kasparov in the Classical World Chess Championship 1995 match against challenger Viswanathan Anand. Kasparov won the match 10½–7½.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In January 1996, Kramnik became the world number-one rated player; although having the same FIDE rating as Kasparov (2775), Kramnik became number one by having played more games during the rating period in question. This was the first time since December 1985 that Kasparov was not world number one, and Kramnik's six-month stretch (January through June 1996) as world number one would be the only time from January 1986 through March 2006 where Kasparov was not world number one. By becoming number one, Kramnik became the youngest ever to reach world number one, breaking Kasparov's record; this record would stand for 14 years until being broken by Magnus Carlsen in January 2010.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik continued to produce good results, including winning at Dortmund (outright or tied) ten times from 1995 to 2011. He is the second of only fifteen chess players to have reached a rating of 2800 (the first being Kasparov).


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: During his reign as world champion, Kramnik never regained the world number-one ranking, doing so only in January 2008 after he had lost the title to Viswanathan Anand; as in 1996, Kramnik had the same FIDE rating as Anand (2799) but became number one due to more games played within the rating period. Kramnik's 12 years between world number-one rankings is the longest since the inception of the FIDE ranking system in 1971.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In the mid- and late-1990s, Kramnik, although considered one of the strongest players in the world, suffered several setbacks in his attempts to qualify for a World Championship match. In 1994, he lost a quarterfinal candidates match for the PCA championship to Gata Kamsky 1½–4½, and later that year, lost a semifinal candidates match for the FIDE championship to Boris Gelfand with the score 3½–4½. In 1998, Kramnik faced Alexei Shirov in a Candidates match for the right to play Garry Kasparov for the Classical World Chess Championship, and lost 3½–5½. In 1999, Kramnik participated in the FIDE knockout championship in Las Vegas, and lost in the quarterfinals to Michael Adams 2–4.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Suitable sponsorship was not found for a Kasparov–Shirov match, and it never took place. It appears Shirov refused to play for what he considered too small a prize fund. Kasparov decided to try to arrange a match with the highest rated player according to FIDE's rating list. At the time Anand was the highest rated player but Anand refused the match. Therefore, in March 2000 Kasparov announced he would play a match against Kramnik, who at the time was third in the rating list behind Kasparov and Anand (Shirov was fourth). This was somewhat controversial, especially since he had lost the qualifier to Shirov. It made Kramnik the first player since 1935 to play a world championship match without qualifying.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In 2000, Kramnik played a 16-game match against Garry Kasparov in London, for the Classical Chess World Championship. Kramnik began the match as underdog, but his adoption of the Berlin Defence to Kasparov's Ruy Lopez opening was very effective. With the white pieces, Kramnik pressed Kasparov hard, winning Games 2 and 10 and overlooking winning continuations in Games 4 and 6. Kasparov put up little fight thereafter, agreeing to short draws with the white pieces in Games 9 and 13. Kramnik won the match 8½–6½ without losing a game. This was only the second time in history that a World Champion had lost a match without winning a single game, the other time being Lasker in 1921. It also marked the first time Kasparov had lost a World Championship match.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik's performance won him the Chess Oscar for 2000; this was the first time he had received the award.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In October 2002, Kramnik competed in Brains in Bahrain, an eight-game match against the chess computer Deep Fritz in Bahrain. Kramnik started well, taking a 3–1 lead after four games. However, in game five, Kramnik made what was described as the worst blunder of his career, losing a knight in a position which was probably drawn. He quickly resigned. He also resigned game six after making a speculative sacrifice, although subsequent analysis showed that he had drawing chances in the final position. The last two games were drawn, and the match ended tied at 4–4.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In February 2004 Kramnik won the Tournament of Linares outright for the first time (he had tied for first with Kasparov in 2000), finishing undefeated with a +2 score, ahead of Garry Kasparov, the world's highest-rated player at the time.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: From 25 September 2004 until 18 October 2004, Kramnik retained his title as Classical World Chess Champion against challenger Péter Lékó at Brissago, Switzerland, by barely drawing the match in the last game. The 14-game match was poised in favor of Lékó right up until Kramnik won the final game, thus forcing a 7–7 draw and ensuring that Kramnik remained world champion. The prize fund was 1 million Swiss francs, which was about USD $770,000 at the time. Because of the drawn result, the prize was split between the two players.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: When Garry Kasparov broke with FIDE, the federation governing professional chess, to play the 1993 World Championship with Nigel Short, he created a rift in the chess world. In response, FIDE sanctioned a match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman for the FIDE World Championship, which Karpov won. Subsequently, the chess world had seen two "champions": the "classical" championship, claiming lineage dating back to Steinitz; and the FIDE-endorsed champion.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: When Kramnik defeated Kasparov and inherited Kasparov's title, he also inherited some controversies. At FIDE World Chess Championship 2005, Kramnik refused to participate, but indicated his willingness to play a match against the winner to unify the world championship. After the tournament, negotiations began for a reunification match between Kramnik and the new FIDE World Champion—Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In April 2006, FIDE announced a reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov—the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006. The match took place in Elista, Kalmykia. After the first four games, Kramnik led 3–1 (out of a maximum of 12). After the fourth game, however, Topalov's coach/manager Silvio Danailov protested that Kramnik was using the toilet suspiciously frequently, implying that he was somehow receiving outside assistance whilst doing so. Topalov said that he would refuse to shake hands with Kramnik in the remaining games. The Appeals committee decided that the players' toilets be locked and that they be forced to use a shared toilet, accompanied by an assistant arbiter.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik refused to play the fifth game unless the original conditions agreed for the match were adhered to. As a result, the point was awarded to Topalov, reducing Kramnik's lead to 3–2. Kramnik stated that the appeals committee was biased and demanded that it be replaced. As a condition to continue the match, Kramnik insisted on playing the remaining games under the original conditions of the match contract, which allows use of the bathroom at the players' discretion.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: The controversy resulted in a heavy volume of correspondence to "Chessbase" and other publications. The balance of views from fans was in support of Kramnik. Prominent figures in the chess world, such as John Nunn, Yasser Seirawan, and Bessel Kok also sided with Kramnik.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: After twelve regular games the match was tied 6–6, although Kramnik continued to dispute the result of the unplayed fifth game until the end of the match. On 13 October 2006 the result of this disputed game became irrelevant as Kramnik won the rapid tie-break by a score of 2½–1½.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: When Kramnik won the 2006 unification match, he also won Topalov's berth in the 2007 World Championship as the incumbent FIDE champion. Although the rationale behind his (and Garry Kasparov's) "classical" title is that the title should change hands by challenge match rather than by tournament, Kramnik stated that he would recognize the winner of this tournament as being the world champion.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In the tournament, held in September 2007, Kramnik and Anand drew both of their games but Kramnik finished second. The tournament, and the world championship, was won by Viswanathan Anand.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Pursuant to the agreement reached before the 2007 tournament Kramnik and Anand played a match of the World Championship title in 2008 in Bonn. He fell victim to Anand's superior preparation, and lost three of the first six games (two with the white pieces). Kramnik's play gradually improved, and although he managed a 29-move victory in game 10, he did not win any other game, and lost the match to Anand by a score of 6½ to 4½ (three wins to Anand, one win to Kramnik, seven draws).


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik had exceptionally good results in 2009, winning once again in Dortmund and then winning the Category 21 (average Elo = 2763) Tal Memorial in Moscow with 6/9 and a 2883 rating performance ahead of world champion Anand, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich. At the time, the average Elo rating of the field made it the strongest tournament in history. Following this result, Kramnik stated that his goal was to regain the World Championship title.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He also participated in the London Chess Classic in December, finishing second to Magnus Carlsen, losing their head-to-head encounter on the Black side of the English Opening. Kramnik's performance in 2009 allowed his rating (average of July 2009 and January 2010 ratings) to be high enough to qualify for the Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik began 2010 at the Corus chess tournament in the Netherlands, during which he defeated new world number one Carlsen with the Black pieces in their head-to-head encounter, ending Carlsen's 36-match unbeaten streak. A late loss to Viswanathan Anand knocked him out of first place, and Kramnik finished with 8/13, tying for second place with Alexei Shirov behind Carlsen's 8½ points.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In May 2010 it was revealed that Kramnik had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In April–May 2010 he tied for 1st–3rd with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Gata Kamsky in the President's Cup in Baku and won the event on tie-break after all finished on 5/7.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik also participated in Dortmund, but had a subpar showing, losing to eventual champion Ruslan Ponomariov and finishing in joint third place with 5/10.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He then participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters preliminary tournament in Shanghai from 3 to 8 September, where he faced world number four Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao; the top two scorers qualified for the Grand Slam final supertournament from 9 to 15 October in Bilbao against Carlsen and Anand. Scoring 3/6, Kramnik tied for second place with Aronian behind the winner Shirov's 4½/6. In the blitz playoff, Kramnik defeated Aronian to qualify along with Shirov for the Grand Slam final.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Shortly after qualifying for the last stage of the Grand Slam, Kramnik played on board one for the Russian team in the 2010 Olympiad. He scored +2–0=7.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Following the Olympiad, Kramnik participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters final in Bilbao where he competed against Anand, Carlsen and Shirov. The average rating of the field was 2789, the highest in history. After defeating world number one Carlsen for the second consecutive time, and then Shirov in his first two games, Kramnik drew his final four games to finish in clear first with 4/6. This gave Kramnik the distinction of having won the two strongest tournaments in chess history.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik's attempt to defend his 2009 title at the Tal Memorial in Moscow ended with a 7th place, while he finished 5th in the London Chess Classic in England.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: 2011 brought varied results. In Wijk aan Zee Kramnik shared fifth with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and in the Candidates he was eliminated by Alexander Grischuk. He won Dortmund for the tenth time, with Lê Quang Liêm in second place, and shared third behind Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich in the Russian Superfinal. Kramnik won the third London Chess Classic with four wins and four draws, and a rating performance over 2900 Elo. Hikaru Nakamura came second. However, in the earlier 6th Tal Memorial 2011 Moscow he came 8th out of 10, with 2 losses (to Nepomniachtchi and Svidler) and 7 draws, with Magnus Carlsen winning the overall tournament on tiebreak from Levon Aronian.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik played a friendly match against Levon Aronian, which finished 3–3 (with a win for Aronian in a rapid game that didn't count as tiebreak). In Tal Memorial he shared fourth place behind Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Teimour Radjabov. He finished second in the London Chess Classic behind Carlsen.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April. He finished with 8½ points, sharing the first place with Magnus Carlsen, who won due to having better tiebreaks.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In the 2013 Alekhine Memorial tournament, held from 20 April to 1 May, Kramnik finished seventh, with +2−2=5.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In the 2013 Tal Memorial tournament, held from 13 to 23 June, Kramnik finished tenth out of ten, with +0−3=6.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: In the Chess World Cup 2013, held in Norway from 11 August to 2 September, Kramnik finished in first place, defeating Dmitry Andreikin in the four-game final match 2½–1½.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik's win at the Chess World Cup 2013 qualified him for the Candidates Tournament 2014. He finished equal third on 7 out of 14, and took third place on tie breaks.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik did not succeed in defending his title in the Chess World Cup. In the third round he was defeated by Andreikin. He narrowly missed out on qualifying by rating for the Candidates Tournament 2016. This was the first Candidates Tournament Kramnik had missed, since their re-introduction in the 2012 World Championship cycle.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He participated as one of 130 grandmasters at the combined World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Berlin that was organized by FIDE from 10 to 14 October. In the World Rapid Championship he remained unbeaten, winning five games of 15 and reaching the 6th place.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik finished third in the World Blitz Championship in Berlin with 15 / 21. He was a half-point behind the winner Alexander Grischuk and lost second place on tiebreak to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik competed in the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, held from 917 July and finished joint second with 4/7.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He played in the Tal Memorial (a ten-player round-robin tournament) in Moscow from 26 September6 October. He finished sixth with 4.5/9 in the opening blitz round-robin on 25 September, meaning that he was given one more game to play with the black pieces than with the white in the classical tournament. He finished joint fifth in the classical tournament, again with 4.5/9.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He participated in three of the four events of the Grand Chess Tour (he withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup due to health issues and was replaced by Svidler): Kramnik played the Paris Grand Chess Tour speed chess tournament, the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour speed chess tournament, and the London Chess Classic classical chess tournament. All the events of the Grand Chess Tour were 10-player round robin tournaments.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: The Paris Grand Chess Tour tournament was held from 912 June and was composed of a mixture of rapid and blitz games. Kramnik finished ninth with 5.5/18, above only comparatively low-rated wildcard player Laurent Fressinet.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: The Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour tournament was held from 1720 June in Leuven, Belgium. Like the Paris GCT, it was composed of a combination of rapid and blitz games. Kramnik finished joint eighth with 2.5/9.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik was still a 2800+ player for most of 2017 and therefore still competing at the highest levels. He finished second in the Gashimov Memorial tournament (5/9) behind Shakriyar Mamedyarov (5.5/9), third in Norway Chess behind Nakamura and Aronian. He finished fourth in the Dortmund Sparkassen. He was knocked out by Vasyl Ivanchuk in the World Cup of 2017 in the third round. In December he performed in a simultaneous exhibition on 30 chessboards in Geneva, winning by 29,5-0,5.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik seemed set to again narrowly miss qualifying for the Candidates on rating, but in late 2017 he was awarded the wild-card entry to the Candidates Tournament 2018. Kramnik started the Candidates tournament well, including a brilliant win with black against Levon Aronian in Round 3. But he faded and finished equal fifth out of eight, on 6.5 points of 14.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik competed in the 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January, where he finished last with a score of 4½/13 (+2–6=5). He subsequently announced his retirement from professional chess: "I already decided to finish my professional chess career a couple of months ago and now, after having played my last tournament, I would like to announce it publicly." He said he might still participate in rapid and blitz events and hold simultaneous exhibitions. He stated that he intends to focus on chess for children and education.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik played a six-game match against the computer program Deep Fritz in Bonn, Germany from 25 November to 5 December 2006, losing 2–4 to the machine, with 2 losses and 4 draws. He received 500,000 Euros for playing and would have received twice as much had he won the match. Deep Fritz version 10 ran on a computer containing two Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs. Kramnik received a copy of the program in mid-October for testing, but the final version included an updated opening book. Except for limited updates to the opening book, the program was not allowed to be changed during the course of the match. The endgame tablebases used by the program were restricted to five pieces even though a complete six-piece tablebase was widely available.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: The first game ended in a draw. A number of commentators claimed that Kramnik missed a win. The second game was won by Deep Fritz, due to a mistake by Kramnik, who failed to defend against a threatened mate-in-one. Susan Polgar called it the "blunder of the century". The third, fourth and fifth games of the match ended in draws. In the last game Kramnik played the aggressive Sicilian Defense in an attempt to win with black and hence even the match, but was outplayed by Fritz. Kramnik was forced to resign, and Fritz won the match 4–2.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: As of 2021, this has turned out to be the last major human-computer match. According to one expert at the time, ""I don’t know what one could get out of it" [a further match] "at this point. The science is done"".


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: On 30 December 2006 Kramnik married French journalist Marie-Laure Germon. Their wedding took place in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. They have two children: daughter Daria, and son Vadim Vladimirovich. They reside in Geneva.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik has been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an uncommon form of arthritis. It causes him great physical discomfort while playing. In January 2006, Kramnik announced that he would skip the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee to seek out treatment for his arthritis. He returned from treatment in June 2006, playing in the 37th Chess Olympiad. He scored a +4 result, achieving the highest rating performance (2847) of the 1307 participating players.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Garry Kasparov described Kramnik's style as pragmatic and tenacious, in the latter similar to Anatoly Karpov. He is one of the toughest opponents to defeat, losing only one game in over one hundred games leading up to his match with Kasparov, including eighty consecutive games without loss. Kasparov did not defeat Kramnik during their 2000 World Championship match, partly due to Kramnik's use of the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez. Kramnik is renowned for his endgame skills.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: Kramnik has significantly shaped opening theory in chess. Viswanathan Anand has said of him in 2012: "I don't know exactly how many lines he's established, but you get the impression that for the last 10 years we've only been using his ideas. ... His stamp on opening theory is much more significant than mine." Kramnik's results with the white pieces against the King's Indian Defence made Kasparov drop the opening from his repertoire, and caused the opening to disappear from top-level play for many years. Kramnik's use of the Berlin Defence in his 2000 match against Kasparov led to a massive increase in the opening's popularity. Kramnik was the world's leading exponent of the Petrov's Defence for much of his career and he also revived the Catalan Opening.


title: Vladimir Kramnik

text: He also plays in makruk, on May 1, 2004, while visiting the Federal Exhibition Hall, immediately learned the rules and beat Dr. René Gralla. In his opinion, Thai chess is more strategic than Indian (international); and they need to plan combinations with care, since Thai chess can be compared to endgame in international chess. As the reigning world chess champion, he expressed his wish to play a mixed match of makruk and chess with the reigning makruk champion Tor Pagnaam.


title: Cynefin framework

text: The Cynefin framework ( ) is a conceptual framework used to aid decision-making. Created in 1999 by Dave Snowden when he worked for IBM Global Services, it has been described as a "sense-making device". "Cynefin" is a Welsh word for "habitat".


title: Cynefin framework

text: Cynefin offers five decision-making contexts or "domains"—"clear" (known as "simple" until 2014, then "obvious" until being recently renamed), "complicated", "complex", "chaotic", and "confusion"—that help managers to identify how they perceive situations and make sense of their own and other people's behaviour. The framework draws on research into systems theory, complexity theory, network theory and learning theories.


title: Cynefin framework

text: The idea of the Cynefin framework is that it offers decision-makers a "sense of place" from which to view their perceptions. "Cynefin" is a Welsh word meaning "habitat", "haunt", "acquainted", "familiar". Snowden uses the term to refer to the idea that we all have connections, such as tribal, religious and geographical, of which we may not be aware. It has been compared to the te reo Māori word "tūrangawaewae", meaning a place to stand, or the "ground and place which is your heritage and that you come from".


title: Cynefin framework

text: Snowden, then of IBM Global Services, began work on a Cynefin model in 1999 to help manage intellectual capital within the company. He continued developing it as European director of IBM's Institute of Knowledge Management, and later as founder and director of the IBM Cynefin Centre for Organizational Complexity, established in 2002. Cynthia Kurtz, an IBM researcher, and Snowden described the framework in detail the following year in a paper, "The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world", published in "IBM Systems Journal".


title: Cynefin framework

text: The Cynefin Centre—a network of members and partners from industry, government and academia—began operating independently of IBM in 2004. In 2007 Snowden and Mary E. Boone described the Cynefin framework in the "Harvard Business Review". Their paper, "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making", won them an "Outstanding Practitioner-Oriented Publication in OB" award from the Academy of Management's Organizational Behavior division.