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I've begun to read the GUARDIAN each Tuesday, on account of its weekly chess column written jointly by Grandmaster Danny King and Ronan Bennett. Today's column features a combination played in an important game by Vasili Smyslov - see Vasily Smyslov: the master of incisive calculation (and the earlier blog Catalan adventures, Saturday, June 19. 2010).

The newspaper's section on the World Cup includes a table where each country's performance in World Cups is related to its population (unfortunately, the table doesn't appear to be included in the newspaper's online version).

By this criterion, Uruguay (which plays the Netherlands in a semi-final this evening) comes out on top by a considerable margin. With a tiny population of 3.3 million, Uruguay has managed to win the World Cup twice.






!Northern Ireland comes in second. A note explains that Northern Ireland is the smallest country ever to reach the quarter-finals. The GUARDIAN gives our population as 1.8 million but in 1958, when Norn Irn achieved the feat, it would have been more like 1.5 million. We have a line, too, in irony with the chant "We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland!"

Scotland, too, fares well in 5th place. Hungary is in the top 10 as well. England is basically nowhere, in 17th place.

Of course, population isn't everything. If it were, China, the USA and Russia would be up there, along with India, Pakistan and Indonesia. But they are not. But should we not more readily celebrate the success of a small country than that of a large one? Come on, Uruguay!

Last night the North Down Conservative association chose Cllr Ian Parsley as its candidate to contest next year's elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly in the North Down Constituency, which returns 8 members. Congratulations to Ian!

Furthermore, the Association chose Ian Parsley, as well as several others, as candidates to contest next year's local Council elections in the North Down Borough Council area. The other candidates include Derek Bourgoyne, David O'Callaghan, Julian Robertson and Dean Russell. Congratulations to all.