Media comments on chess

[JustinHorton]

It's a, er, rehash, of this article from the Telegraph.

The Indepdendent writer seems to specialise in this sort of thing (see for instance).

[Roger de Coverly]

It's a, er, rehash, of this article from the Telegraph

The Telegraph is behind a partial pay wall, so not always available.

[Kevin Thurlow]

At least the Telegraph had the board the right way round. I think this sort of plagiarism is outrageous.

[JustinHorton]

It's a, er, rehash, of this article from the Telegraph

The Telegraph is behind a partial pay wall, so not always available.

Yeah, it's a pain. Sometimes if you try in a different browser...

[Stewart Reuben]

This also appeared in the Daily Telegraph. Malcolm Pein says the CSC will give a response in due course. He feels the results were disappointing but the methodology flawed.
I have written to the DT, but of course my letter may not be published.
Chess helps people improve their 'thinking stamina'. This is unlikely to help young children who play virtually instantaneously. But it may help those of secondary school age, But this study did not investigate older children. It may also help seniors avoid the onset of senility because of this stamina issue. But to say the assertion that chess helps academic attainment has been debunked is nonsense.

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Amber Rudd, the new Home Secretary is MP for Hastings. Thus I have met her a few times at the Opening or Closing Ceremony.

[Mick Norris]

Geoff Boycott on TMS

But if you ask me from the whole day what do I remember, it's nothing. It was a bit like chess all day.

[Richard Bates]

If you have a tournament with 9 rounds, getting White in round 1 is a considerable advantage. You get off to a better start. You are likely to have White in the last round. You will probably have 5 Whites. Gibraltar has 10 rounds. The disadvantaged of that is that some players will get 6 of 1 colour and 4 of the other.

I actually disagree with this, or at least it is not as simple as portrayed. Usually in a large, long Swiss the most important games are the last few rounds, particularly the last two. In an odd numbered tournament, the chances of getting a double white in the last two rounds are significantly higher if you have black in round one.

On the other hand having white in round one in an even numbered tournament is a significant boost both because of the much higher chance of a significant colour advantage over the tournament as a whole, and almost no chance of a colour disadvantage. With a good chance of a double white in the last two rounds to boost.

[Stewart Reuben]

One problem with any Swiss is that White tends to win more games. Thus there is usually a preponderance of black-seekers on the higher scores and white-seekers on the lower.

I have long had the ambition for there to be a standardplay tournament Swiss where each player meets the same opponent twice, one game being with White and one with Black. This would remove the colour bias. It would be logical to play each round of two games over one day. Perhaps 7 rounds, being 14 games and have one rest day. Factors mitigating against this: Norms for events greater than 13 games count as if 13. It is more difficult to find 3 GMs in 7 rounds when looking for a GM norm.

[Clive Blackburn]

I have long had the ambition for there to be a standardplay tournament Swiss where each player meets the same opponent twice, one game being with White and one with Black.

Surely that is not a Swiss tournament then.

I thought one of the absolute rules of a Swiss was that you can never play the same Opponent more than once.

[Stewart Reuben]

Clive >Surely that is not a Swiss tournament then.<

Surely it is. Indeed there have been Swiss blitz double game tournaments. Just amend the statement that you do not meet the same opponent twice in different rounds. If you are still offended by the English, call it a double game Swiss.

[Roger de Coverly]

If you are still offended by the English, call it a double game Swiss.

Would such a hypothetical tournament be paired on the basis that every two game match had three results or five?

Given that shorter breaks between rounds are possible, a double "five" round rapid play looks feasible within the timetabling of a weekend congress. So six games on the Saturday and four on the Sunday.

[Stewart Reuben]

Roger >Would such a hypothetical tournament be paired on the basis that every two game match had three results or five? <

I think blitz tournaments have always been 5 results. But there is nothing to stop it being the other way. The advantage of 5 means, the player who wins the first game, still has a reason to win the second.
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Trevor Phillips, when head of the Commission for Racial Equality, visited Oldham. Speaking to a hall of 200 students, 'one thing was immediately obvious: groups of White and Asian students sat in the same hall -but the groups didn't mix. It was like looking at a living chess board.'

[Adam Raoof]

Leonard Barden on Kings Place 2016 today

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... s-festival

[Roger de Coverly]

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6c4675f8 ... e4c3ae273b

Caption

‘Angela Eagle? She was just a pawn’ … Len McCluskey in his office at Unite HQ. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

from

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ch-ones-us

[NickFaulks]

On Test Match Special, the experts are discussing why it is that no matter how much a batsman tells himself that, this innings, he will not play an irresponsible shot, he then does it anyway. One says "it's not like chess".

Sounds exactly like chess to me.