Celebrity identification

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Well, they may not be celebrities, but can anyone identify the following?

(1) Does anyone recognise the person making the opening move here in game 3? (scroll down or search for 'guest of honor'). Picture is also here.

(2) Does anyone know who make the opening move ('ceremonial'/'guest of honour') for Game 2? Picture of the opening move is here.

I have identified those who made the opening moves in the other games (and for game 1 of the tie-breaks), but none of the reporters seem to have known or mentioned the guests of honour for games 2 and 3. Enquiring minds would like to know!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I think I have identified one of them: a representative of one of the sponsors appears to be making the opening move in round two: Andrey Guryev, or possibly Andrey Guryev Jr. (this is annoying!). Certainly an Andrey Guryev presented the trophy to Carlsen at the closing ceremony. Connected to PhosAgro, one of the sponsors. Looking into it some more, it is Andrey A. Guryev (the son), who is CEO of PhosAgro.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And the guy making the ceremonial opening move in game 3 is someone called Jon Gulbrandsen:

http://schack.se/han-betalade-50-000-kr ... -vm-parti/

He apparently was the winner of an auction and bid 50,000 Norwegian krone to make the first move.

You would have thought that would have made the English-language news media.
It made a bit of a splash in the Norwegian press.

[Roger de Coverly]

Picture of the opening move

One of Andrew Paulson's novelties has fallen by the wayside, namely a screen to hide all the refreshment clutter that can accumulate during a long game. By then the suppliers of the water are one of the sponsors. The spotlights which made the clocks impossible to read in video coverage have also been abandoned. I don't think either that they were using that set of pieces where the Kings and Queens looked very similar and the knights looked like toilet seats.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Can you remember if the tradition of having guests to make the opening moves was done in the past, Roger?

For the record, those making these ceremonial moves for this event (WCC 2018) were:

Game 1: Woody Harrelson, US actor and playwright
Game 2: Andrey A. Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro (sponsor)
Game 3: Jon Gulbrandsen (winner of an auction to make the first move in a game)
Game 4: Ellisiv Reppen, Norwegian chess player
Game 5: Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia
Game 6: Kay Burley, Sky News presenter
Game 7: Shreyas Royal, English junior chess player
Game 8: Demis Hassabis, chess player and co-founder of DeepMind
Game 9: Daniel Weil, designer of the chessboard and pieces
Game 10: Tom Hollander, English actor
Game 11: Sergey Karjakin, previous challenger for the title
Game 12: Aldo del Bo, Head of Global Partnerships and Sponsorships of Kaspersky Lab (sponsor)
Tie-breaks: Lucy Hawking, daughter of physicist Stephen Hawking

Bit of a mixed bag, but provides some human interest for the media to latch on to (sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't).

[IM Jack Rudd]

I've played one of those people in a serious chess game. It was a shorter draw than any of those in the match.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I'm going to hazard a guess it was Demis...

[IM Jack Rudd]

[Event "London Classic op"] [Site "London"] [Date "2011.12.06"] [Round "4"] [White "Rudd, Jack"] [Black "Reppen, Ellisiv"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C22"] [WhiteElo "2290"] [BlackElo "1949"] [PlyCount "35"] [EventDate "2011.12.03"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [SourceTitle "CBM 145 Extra"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2012.01.03"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2012.01.03"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4. Qe3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 O-O 7. O-O-O Re8 8. Qg3 Nxe4 9. Nxe4 Rxe4 10. Bf4 Qf6 11. Nh3 d6 12. Bd3 Nd4 13. Kb1 Ne2 14. Qf3 Ba3 15. bxa3 Nc3+ 16. Kc1 Nxa2+ 17. Kb1 Nc3+ 18. Kc1 1/2-1/2

[Matt Mackenzie]

Kay Burley, shurely she isn't into chess??

Has always seemed the type who might ask (a la the Spice Girls movie) "how does the horsey bit move??"

[Kevin Thurlow]

I've played Demis 6 times, but only in Rapidplay!

[Roger Lancaster]

Kay Burley, shurely she isn't into chess??

Has always seemed the type who might ask (a la the Spice Girls movie) "how does the horsey bit move??"

LOL, that's a trifle sexist! Kay has apparently been playing since childhood - and, when working for local paper in Wigan, seemingly was a frequent interviewer of Nigel Short!

[JustinHorton]

Kay has apparently been playing since childhood - and, when working for local paper in Wigan, seemingly was a frequent interviewer of Nigel Short!

All this may be true, but just out of, ah, good journalistic practice, do we have any source for that claim other than Burley saying so herself this month?

[Matt Mackenzie]

Kay Burley, shurely she isn't into chess??

Has always seemed the type who might ask (a la the Spice Girls movie) "how does the horsey bit move??"

LOL, that's a trifle sexist!

Not really, though it is perhaps somewhat Burleyist

[Roger Lancaster]

Kay has apparently been playing since childhood - and, when working for local paper in Wigan, seemingly was a frequent interviewer of Nigel Short!

All this may be true, but just out of, ah, good journalistic practice, do we have any source for that claim other than Burley saying so herself this month?

Not that I'm aware of which is why, um, good journalistic practice, I included the word "apparently".

(Editing - first "why" in last line later corrected to "which").

[IM Jack Rudd]

Looking back at that game against Reppen, 15.Bc1 looks like it could be rather strong. I must not have seen it at the tame.