Media comments on chess

[LawrenceCooper]

There's a bit in the media about Mo Salah playing every day

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/co ... o_is_1400/

[Geoff Chandler]

I saw this today for £6.00. Doubt very much I'll buy it new. I may give it go if I pick it up from a charity shop.



The current world chess champion is Nolan Sawyer and from the blurb...

"Nolan's loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What's even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over....etc."

If interested there is a review if it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MiVPxwhWVM

[Geoff Chandler]

In the 2020 film 'Riders of the Storm' at the start a man is sacked and as he is clearing out his desk he picks up a set and board and empties the pieces into a cardboard box. You only see the position on the board briefly but it is definitely;

Edward Lasker - Sir George Thomas, 1912. (White to play)

rn3rk1/pbppq1pp/1p2pb2/4N2Q/3PN3/3B4/PPP2PPP/R3K2R w KQ - 6 11

[Neil Graham]

I am sure you all watch one of the most entertaining shows on television - I refer, of course, to Bluey on cbeebies.

A new episode has been screened today "Chest" where Dad tries to teach Bluey (and Bingo) chess - with predictable results.

Here are a couple of clips:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsBvTX9AMO0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ayCXNrnV00

[Ian Thompson]

Currently on the BBC home page - The Indian siblings taking the chess world by storm.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Currently on the BBC home page - The Indian siblings taking the chess world by storm.

Excellent article. Would encourage anyone who hasn't read it already to do so.

[Mike Gunn]

There was a reference to Fischer vs Spassky 1972 in the film "Harry Brown" which was shown last night on Dave. Michael Caine plays Harry Brown, a retired ex-marine who lives on a London housing estate which has a gang of youths who sell drugs and terrorize many residents. In early scenes we see Harry visit his dying wife in hospital and play chess with his friend in the local pub. The hospital phones Harry to say his wife is on the point of death but he is scared to take the underpass which is the quickest route to the hospital because it is controlled by the drug gang. Harry's chess playing friend says he is fed up being harrassed by the youths and shows Harry he has a bayonet which he says he will use to protect himself when the gang confront him again. Harry's friend is then murdered by the gang and when Harry is wandering in disconsolate fashion down the local canal towpath a youth with a knife attempts to mug Harry and Harry (apparently accidentally) kills the youth when defending himself. This seems to change Harry's outlook, he buys a gun, enters vigilante mode and starts killing members of the drug gang.

The film is quite gruesome and depressing and I don't particularly recommend it, but it contains an interesting scene when the female police DI (who is investigating the murder of Harry's mate) visits Harry in his flat. Seeing he has a position set up on his chess board she says "I didn't think you had an opponent now?". "Ah" says Harry "I'm studying the games of the grandmasters, this is a position from game 17 of Fischer vs Spassky (1972) where Fischer played the Pirc defence for the first time". He starts to describe black's strategy in the Pirc but seeing incomprehension in the DI's face he simply concludes: " ... and Fischer went on to win". (In fact the game was drawn but I suppose the "winning" could refer to the match.) I guess the chess interlude is there to suggest Harry is capable of planning an effective vigilante strategy ...

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Mike,

I recall a reference to this film on another site. Streatham and Brixton.

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... brown.html

The link has a clip of the chess scene with Michael Caine pronouncing 'Pirc' correctly though I've always heard it being called the 'Perk' (quick trivia. Who was the famous chess master who went to the same school as Michael Caine.)

[Mike Gunn]

Yes, I also noticed the correct "Pertz" pronunciation and (watching the clip) realised that he gets the game number wrong. He definitely says "7" not "17" (when I looked it up I assumed I must have misheard when watching the film, but I didn't).

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Yes, I also noticed the correct "Pertz" pronunciation "

Oh, is that how it's pronounced? I assumed "P -ear-ch", but I avoided that by using "Robatsch", one of the many other names for the system.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Mike,

I picked up a sci-fi book today, 50p. 'A Plague From Space' by Harry Harrison. I fell for the back of the book blurb but have always liked this author. I never noticed or even thought about the 'Harry' coincidence till after opening it up on the bus.

The very first paragraph has a Dr. Sam Berohill playing over a Fischer - Botvinnik game from Berlin 1973.
Ignore the obvious errors. It's the double 'Harry' and 'Fischer' coincidence. (It's a sign from the Gods!)

I'm not long in and checked the horses to see if anything 'Harry' was running today. YES! The 14:10 Plumpton a horse called 'Uallrightharry' at 12-1 but I was too late. I would have bunged £5.00 e/way on it....

(it came in 7th.... )

Edit: Just noticed. The book has dedication to 'Hubert Pritchard!' Tomorrow look for anything called 'Harry' and stick on a few quid on it. If it's odds are over 10-1 go e/way.
(the player who went to the same school with Micahel Caine was...'Harry' Golombek!)

[John Saunders]

How to pronounce Pirc in Slovenian - choose the Slovenian, not the German, option. Sounds roughly like 'Peerts' as pronounced by a Scot, but not a Sassenach, who rarely do justice to the letter 'r'. When will the English ever learn to speak their own language properly?

The pronunciation 'Perk' is unforgivably horrible (beware of another useless pronunciation website giving exactly this), but we're not the only people who mangle the pronunciation of foreign players' names. I remember talking to Spanish chess friends who referred to a player who seemed to be called something like 'Beer-nay'. It was Robert Byrne.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Anglophone names are probably quite frequently mangled, if only because they frequently start with a J sound that doesn't exist in a lot of other languages.

[LawrenceCooper]

Sky News just had a brief segment on Bodhana's result at the European blitz. Their website article: https://news.sky.com/story/british-ches ... p-13034714

[Kevin Thurlow]

And BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67770604