English Chess Forum

I think the person you're thinking of was called Fred Trueman.

I don't get it Alex.

What has an ex-president of the United States got to do with
media friendly chess players?

Anthony Taglione wrote:We don't need a GM to represent British Chess; we need a grass-roots Northerner, Yorkshire born and Yorkshire bred by way of some upper-echelon University. We need someone who is a viable cross between Jonathan Mestel and Mike Tyson ...

Isn't Lennox Lewis something of a chess player? I think he's county strength.

Let's be serious: chess as a game is for gents. You won't see it being played on East Enders. And chess at the professional level tends to be populated by strange people. Strong chess players tend not to dress well, have strange mannerisms, exhibit obsessive-compulsive behavior, suffer from Asperger's syndrome disproportionately, and overwhelmingly tend to be introverts. Danny King is about as good as you can get. Granted, he's getting on a bit now.

Geoff Chandler wrote:I don't get it Alex.

What has an ex-president of the United States got to do with
media friendly chess players?

Clearly cricket hasn't made it north of the border yet.

Arshad Ali wrote:Strong chess players tend not to dress well, have strange mannerisms, exhibit obsessive-compulsive behavior, suffer from Asperger's syndrome disproportionately, and overwhelmingly tend to be introverts.

So what?

Alex Holowczak wrote: So what?

Makes it difficult for them to be "media worthy."

Hi Alex, yes Fiery Fred - forgot to add the smiley thing.

and this:

Asperger's syndrome disproportionately

Asperger's is similar to autism in terms of its dysfunctions
relating to communicationand social interaction.

It is also characterized by linguistic precosity and obsessive interests,
e.g., memorizing TV shows/movies and repeating them, which is known as
perseverative scripting.

They synthesize information in novel ways.
Their language is pedantic, rigid, fact-oriented.

One Asperger's affliction is an inability to tolerate noise,
called auditory hypersensitivity.

OK.

So that's 99% of us out of the picture.

Looks like we are back to Danny King.

My sister has been telling me for years that I have high-level Asperger's Syndrome. I've often considered that it's merely a term thrown at people who like to think to excess.

Anthony Taglione wrote:My sister has been telling me for years that I have high-level Asperger's Syndrome. I've often considered that it's merely a term thrown at people who like to think to excess.

Treat it as a compliment. I hear 25% of math undergrads at Cambridge have it. At the higher levels of achievement in chess and math you'll find a disproportionate number of people with Asperger's.

Geoff Chandler wrote:One Asperger's affliction is an inability to tolerate noise, called auditory hypersensitivity.

Schopenhauer claimed tolerance to noise was inversely related to intelligence.