Media comments on chess

[Mick Norris]

Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess

Today he's left his political career behind and is back in his home city of Sheffield where he's turned part of an out-of-town industrial estate into the new South Yorkshire Chess and Education Centre.

It's only the second such venue outside London

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Good to see from Jonathan. We were invited to take a team of juniors down the Sheffield on Monday but we had too many away during the bank holiday. I look forwards to visiting the new Chess Centre.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess

Today he's left his political career behind and is back in his home city of Sheffield where he's turned part of an out-of-town industrial estate into the new South Yorkshire Chess and Education Centre.

It's only the second such venue outside London

The headline (for context for those who haven't or can't click through):

Jonathan Arnott: Ex-UKIP high-flyer swaps politics for chess

[Ian Thompson]

Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess

Is there any evidence to substantiate this claim - "He ... went on to win the British junior under 16s"? I can't see his name on Britbase's list of junior winners. Perhaps he won the championship of some junior organisation, although I'm not aware of any calling themselves "British ...".

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

On the write-up here, he says "I was the English Under-16 Squad champion in 1996/1997..."

[Tim Spanton]

On the write-up here, he says "I was the English Under-16 Squad champion in 1996/1997..."

Reminds me of when I won the World Open tournament in Philadelphia in 1995. Or, to be more precise, the World Open Warm-Up tournament in Philadelphia in 1995.

[Roger de Coverly]

Earlier in this thread
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5043&p=283917

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Perhaps he won the championship of some junior organisation, although I'm not aware of any calling themselves "British ..."."

Sadly, I think all of them may do. Fond parents claim their child is British Junior Champion at some age group and don't realise it was not the actual British Championship. It's unclear if they're misinformed or confused.

[Roger de Coverly]

Sadly, I think all of them may do. Fond parents claim their child is British Junior Champion at some age group and don't realise it was not the actual British Championship.

Former CEO Phil Ehr claimed to have trained players from a school that had been British (or English) team champions several times. It was actually EPSCA who run team championships for each age group, thus there are multiple school champions every year.

Let's not mention the count of British titles claimed by RDK.

[Ian Thompson]

"Perhaps he won the championship of some junior organisation, although I'm not aware of any calling themselves "British ..."."

Sadly, I think all of them may do. Fond parents claim their child is British Junior Champion at some age group and don't realise it was not the actual British Championship. It's unclear if they're misinformed or confused.

I'm aware of organisations calling themselves "English ...", with corresponding claims that their players are English champions or representing England, but not "British ..." (other than the ill-fated "Great Britain Junior Squad" which never got off the ground as far as I'm aware).

[Geoff Chandler]

I picked up a slim book today as part of 4 for £1.00 deal, the title is ''The Year 1943" quite interesting. It also listed notable births in 1943; Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Cilla Black, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Major, Billy Jean King, Robert De Niro, Graeme Garden, Barry Manilow and...Bobby Fischer!

[Kevin Thurlow]

This advert amused me

https://squareoffnow.com/?utm_source=Bi ... 4fd047690b

Looking at the "Grand Kingdom" set, the video shows the pieces moving, with the unusual opening, 1.Nf3 Bg4 (TN), 2.d4 d5, 3.c3.

[Jonathan Arnott]

Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess

Is there any evidence to substantiate this claim - "He ... went on to win the British junior under 16s"? I can't see his name on Britbase's list of junior winners. Perhaps he won the championship of some junior organisation, although I'm not aware of any calling themselves "British ...".

No, this is an error by the BBC which I flagged up with them yesterday the moment I saw the article.

Probably not Michael's mistake. He's a good journalist, and fair (i.e. whilst I disagree with him politically on many issues, his reporting is impartial and as accurate as anyone's). Sub-editors tend to edit with the intention of improving the readability, and because they don't interview directly, errors of this kind can creep in very easily when they remove text that is accurate and therefore a tad clumsy. The competition concerned was the junior squad championships in (I think) the 1996-1997 season. Michael asked me for what he could say as a hook for the piece, so I gave a few options and he chose that one.

A few reasonable minor moans about the article (why use an old picture that's obviously out of date, why not use one of the chess photos, the inaccuracy referred to above...and the headline! Aargh!).

I was reluctant to do this interview because I don't want to associate chess with politics in that way, and Michael - to be fair to him - only mentioned the political party's name towards the end of the article and made clear that I wanted to distance myself from what they morphed into. But the subs will write the headline, and so the second word...

Sadly, a section of the public will read only the headline and won't concern themselves with the article.

[Angus French]

I was reluctant to do this interview because I don't want to associate chess with politics in that way, and Michael - to be fair to him - only mentioned the political party's name towards the end of the article and made clear that I wanted to distance myself from what they morphed into.

I always thought UKIP was bo**ocks with racial undertones.

[Roland Kensdale]

BBC Click, Digital Diva: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001q9x4 via @bbciplayer

At 8.02 onwards musician Harry Yeff saying how he first encountered AI by playing engines while a tournament chess player.