"Chess is a game"

[Ben Purton]

I agree , from El president on Eggheads

[John Constable]

Beat me to it Ben. The "That's Life" team chose to play the sport round against CJ and said that they hoped there were no questions on chess to which CJ replied "Chess is a game".

[PeterTurland]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

[Nick Thomas]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

I presume they asked you to stop the truck at that point to let them out

[PeterTurland]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

I presume they asked you to stop the truck at that point to let them out

presume all you like, in your career attempt to be a gerbil herder.

Not once in my 18 wheel jockeying career, did I not give a safe hitchhiking environment, to my conscience, never once did anyone ask to leave and please tell Jeremy Clarkson, I never raped anyone.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

I presume they asked you to stop the truck at that point to let them out

That's quite funny. I had exactly the same thought, and then realised that Peter likely asked the question after setting the hitch-hikers at their ease, not immediately. It's the way you tell the stories, Peter...

[John McKenna]

"Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet, you wouldn't take it." (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead)

[Stewart Reuben]

'All of Life is 6/5 against'. Damon Runyon
'It's our job to make life odds on.' Stewart Reuben 2005.

[Neill Cooper]

"I used to play chess expecting to win, but this game [politics] was not about winning or losing. It was about losing. From the beginning the position was a dead loss."
Garry Kasparov, FT Magazine 17/12/11

[John McKenna]

"Never give a sucker an even break." (W C Fields - his distinctive way of speaking and professed attitudes such as hatred of children and dogs gained him enormous popularity...)
'O tempora, O mores!

[John Upham]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

You could have asked them if they had seen "The Hitcher" and whether they had enjoyed it...

[PeterTurland]

Many years ago when I was a truck driver and I used to pick up hitchhikers, one question I used to ask them was 'Is life a game, or a story?

You could have asked them if they had seen "The Hitcher" and whether they had enjoyed it...

I'm not a sadist because I do not like scaring people.

But I do remember one story.

In terms of truckers language, somebody standing at the side of the road waving a tachograph was a trucker in need of a ride. It made little difference to me 'coz I used to give rides anyway - just for the company.

So anyway, I see this character standing at the side of the rode, waving a tacho, so I picked him up. If it was another trucker you where giving a ride to, obviously the conversation revolved around trucks and trucking.

It was quite obvious to me after a short while, that this guy was no trucker, but just someone who wanted a ride and was pretending to be a trucker, when I worked this out I started to play on it by asking him increasingly technical questions about trucks and trucking. After a while even he realized some of his answers were absurd and he started to understand that I had understood he was no trucker, perhaps it was because he thought, I was going to to stop somewhere, drag him out of the cab and kick the s--t out of him, but I could actually smell the fear on him.

So I dropped him off where he wanted, but I had a smile on my face for the rest of day.

[IanDavis]

Beat me to it Ben. The "That's Life" team chose to play the sport round against CJ and said that they hoped there were no questions on chess to which CJ replied "Chess is a game".

Amazing what you learn as President of the ECF, isn't it?

[PaulTalbot]

Chess is recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and by the vast majority of EU countries. Perhaps the president of the English Chess Federation should know this?

[PeterTurland]

Thousands of years ago some of the Greek philosophers used to put people into two categories, you were either an epicurean or a stoic.

Epicureans think we only live for sensory gratification, sort of if you look all right and everybody thinks you are a great person, nothing needs to change.

Stoics think the only way to make progress, is by being willing to suffer and take risks for progress.

Epicureans look at life in terms of themselves, whilst stoics look at themselves in terms of life.

Earlier on in the debate I mentioned asking hitchhikers whether they thought life was a game or a story, the number of times I received the answer that life is a game tells much, as to what goes on in human culture.

If someone sees life as a game, of course they are going to see chess as a game, because they see everything as a game, where status is the only goal.