Beards in grandmaster chess

[Stephen Saunders]

The obvious names have already been mentioned, but I believe George Botterill and Andrew Whiteley (are they still alive?) have or used to have beards, and the US GMs Kavalek and Alexander Ivanov come to mind too.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I believe that both are still with us, yes.

[Joey Stewart]

Was Tony miles a beard wearer? I was only just getting into the game when he died so never really knew of him until much later.

[Stephen Saunders]

Was Tony miles a beard wearer? I was only just getting into the game when he died so never really knew of him until much later.

He was in his younger days, yes.

[Jon Mahony]

Shaving has become an indulgence only the bourgeoisie can afford -- the price of razors has become prohibitive. Here in the US, Gillette and Schick have divvied up the market between them (about $4bn for Gillette and $1bn for Schick). Of course, this duopoly -- with a tacit price agreement -- means they can jack up the prices at will. And they do (a pack of ten Gillette Sensor Excel razors now sets me back $27). The purpose of explaining all this is that a linear regression will reveal a correlation between affluence and propensity to shave. Since chess masters are an indigent lot (on the whole), one would expect a disproportionate number of them to have beards. More study of this is clearly required.

Yes the price of razor blades are extortionate - you are looking at £8.00 over here for a pack of 3 Gilet Fusion blades (which according to the packet, you are only supposed to use for 2 weeks, but I make last at least 6).

Sadly beards aren’t a good look for me (had a goatee for a while, but I got a few people commenting that it made me look like Satan ) So I have to fork out on blades and foam.

[John Clarke]

In all the mentions of Fischer, don't forget Larry Evans.

Chess for July 1994 had a photo of the FIDE Candidates participants, with Yudasin, Khalifman and Yusupov all sporting impressive crops of face-fungus.

18 months later the bearded Turkish GM Suat Atalik was also featured.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Though I think that Atalik is clean shaven these days.....

[Clive Blackburn]

Yes the price of razor blades are extortionate - you are looking at £8.00 over here for a pack of 3 Gilet Fusion blades (which according to the packet, you are only supposed to use for 2 weeks, but I make last at least 6).

Yes, a good electric razor with built in beard trimmer is definitely the way to go, your investment would be returned very quickly.

[Jon Mahony]

Yes the price of razor blades are extortionate - you are looking at £8.00 over here for a pack of 3 Gilet Fusion blades (which according to the packet, you are only supposed to use for 2 weeks, but I make last at least 6).

Yes, a good electric razor with built in beard trimmer is definitely the way to go, your investment would be returned very quickly.

I gave up on electric razors, 5 oclock shadow by 11 in the morning - mind you, you stress the word good, mine were all less than £30.00

[Paul Habershon]

I remember my late father being tickled pink by a 'Which' report on razor blades (probably 1960s). It balanced cost against number of shaves per blade. Among the best buys were Wilkinson, expensive but with something like 13+ shaves per blade, and Woolworth's, cheap with 0-2 shaves per blade. 'That's good,' commented Dad. 'Every third day your face gets cut to ribbons!'

[Arshad Ali]

I gave up on electric razors, 5 oclock shadow by 11 in the morning - mind you, you stress the word good, mine were all less than £30.00

I don't think any electric razor can match a good manual razor for a clean shave though they're doubtless cost-effective. The problem is monopolistic/oligopolistic pricing plus a nagging suspicion on my part that the blades have built-in obsolescence -- you get a painless shave a certain number of times and then suddenly the blade seems to wear out.

[Joey Stewart]

So do many of you remember the days before razors were invented (I sometimes see these old cowboy films where they have the old sweeny todd style things to shave with). I wonder if those old style ones would be easier, at least you could re sharpen the blades rather then having to throw them away.

[Roger de Coverly]

So do many of you remember the days before razors were invented (I sometimes see these old cowboy films where they have the old sweeny todd style things to shave with).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor suggests the replaceable blade type became popular after WW1. The modern cartridge type or disposable ones date back to the 1970s, so the older forum members will recall the replaceable blade type. There were also electric shavers of course, these date back to at least the 1960s for the battery powered cordless types.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor#Electric_razors

[Jon Mahony]

So do many of you remember the days before razors were invented (I sometimes see these old cowboy films where they have the old sweeny todd style things to shave with).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor suggests the replaceable blade type became popular after WW1. The modern cartridge type or disposable ones date back to the 1970s, so the older forum members will recall the replaceable blade type. There were also electric shavers of course, these date back to at least the 1960s for the battery powered cordless types.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor#Electric_razors

Yes I’ve long suspected razor blades have a built in (not very long) life span. They have even started fitting them with a dark blue strip, which turns light blue when you are supposed to change it (usually after about 2 shaves!) I change mine about 3 weeks after the strips have gone totally white

I always fancied trying a cut throat razor, with the old fashioned brush and shaving lather, but the prospect of losing an ear put me off!

My local barber does an old fashioned Sweeny Todd shave for a 10er, I may give it a go one day - hopefully you don’t end up in one of Mrs Lovett’s pies.

[Arshad Ali]

Apologies for the profanity but so bloody typical of Gillette:

Because Gillette held a patent on stainless blades but had not acted on it, the company was accused of exploiting customers by forcing them to buy the rust-prone blade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor

The old safety razors, which I used back in the '70s, worked just fine. But difficult to find them now. The Mach3 and Sensor Excel blades are kept in locked plastic boxes at my supermarket -- they're so high priced they're deemed to be something store thieves would particularly target.