New York on the brink

With thirteen days remaining until Election Day, two New York races are coming down to the wire ... the American League Championship Series and the stretch run of the U.S. Chess League. (This is not to say that the current political campaigns are unimportant, merely that they will be resolved later in time than the above contests.) The Yankees find themselves in a 3-1 hole against the Texas Rangers while the New York Knights have lost three of their last four matches, dropping them into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division. With their backs against the wall, here's hoping they step it up!

Speaking of stepping it up, Dartmouth football defeated Holy Cross 27-19 on Saturday to move to 3-2 on the season (0-2 Ivy League). Their two losses, to Penn and Yale, were both by the slimmest of margins, including a 35-28 overtime defeat at Penn. Not a bad start to a rebuilding year (the memory of 2008's 0-10 campaign is still a fresh memory). This weekend sees the Big Green travel to Columbia to seek their first Ivy win of 2010 against the Lions (3-2, 1-1 Ivy).

The chess Olympiad may have concluded, but the World Youth Championship has just gotten underway in Halkidiki, Greece. The United States sent a forty-player delegation and is represented in every age group on both the boys' and girls' side, save boys U16. Good luck to all the participants! And staying in the sporting world, The New York Times recently reported on a new trend in international sport: women's sumo. Who knew?