Media comments on chess

[Geoff Chandler]

I sold a few 'Phantoms' back in the early 90's. I put it in my shop window with a 5 minute time control and it played itself. I left it on all night. I often went passed my shop when it was closed (it was next to Sandy Bells) it was not uncommon to see a crowd looking at it or one person trying convince another that a piece just moved.



Here is a vid of it in action; http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/My_Video.mp4

[Tim Spanton]

I sold a few 'Phantoms' back in the early 90's. I put it in my shop window with a 5 minute time control and it played itself. I left it on all night. I often went passed my shop when it was closed (it was next to Sandy Bells) it was not uncommon to see a crowd looking at it or one person trying convince another that a piece just moved.



Here is a vid of it in action; http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/My_Video.mp4

Love the way it castles!

[Wadih Khoury]

Some chess content in Mind Games - The Experiment on Amazon Prime.

The link contains the claim that "Participants' international gaming rankings improved by an incredible 75%." What that means in a chess context is a mystery to me. The chess player in the film improved his FIDE rating from a pre-Covid rating of 2441 to a current rating of 2468, after dropping to 2394 at the end of 2021.

You got my interest and I had a few minutes of fun trying to reverse engineer an answer:

• If you are 75% stronger, then your win rate would be 1.75/2.75=63%
• A 63% pwin corresponds in the fide booklet to a 95 point differential
• Hence our friend is 95-74 = 21 points short from his claim
• A 74 point increase is about a 0.6 pwin which in turn corresponds to a 50% increase in strength, which isn't that bad at all

[Ian Thompson]

This chess set has just been on Dragon's Den. There was a clue there might be a chess connection when the business owner walked in to the den with a tee-shirt with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 printed on it.

He got offers from 4 of the dragons. I was surprised none of them asked how durable a paper and card chess set is.

[Joey Stewart]

It feels like the dragons are going a little soft in their old age - a few years ago they would have told him why couldn't we just commission a Chinese factory to make this cheaper then you can possibly afford

[Roger de Coverly]

It feels like the dragons are going a little soft in their old age - a few years ago they would have told him why couldn't we just commission a Chinese factory to make this cheaper then you can possibly afford

It reminds me a bit of the "Portland" sets that BH Wood used to sell and postal players would buy, except they were 2D rather than 3D.

viewtopic.php?t=8176

[Roland Kensdale]

Think Steven Bartlett said travel chess sets don't allow you to pause a game and keep the position. No-one corrected him. Plug-in sets of course allow this.

As posted above, I also have a suspicion it would wear out quickly.

[Simon Rogers]

Freeview Channel 33, 5ACTION
Police Interceptors 7pm to 8pm
Wednesday 1st February 2023
There was a police chase on the A19, the narrator, English comedian and actor John Thomson said "Is it Chess on wheels?" as he described the police tactics to stop the alleged criminal.

[John Clarke]

This chess set has just been on Dragon's Den. There was a clue there might be a chess connection when the business owner walked in to the den with a tee-shirt with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 printed on it.

He got offers from 4 of the dragons. I was surprised none of them asked how durable a paper and card chess set is.

His shirt ought to have had 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 ....

[Peter Hornsby]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dwxq0h

1 hour 7 minutes in, had a fairly lengthy interview on BBC Radio Stoke about Newcastle-under-Lyme Chess Club and the World Chess League.Live

[Stewart Reuben]

Well done, Peter. A good, positive chess interview. It may result in some new club members.

[Peter Hornsby]

Thanks Stewart! They seemed to have liked it, as they have invited me back at 8.25am tomorrow morning to discuss today's matches. You can listen to it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_stoke

Also had a friendly bit of banter on Facebook off the back of this with Tim Wall about which is the 'Real Newcastle Chess Club', so we're gonna try to set up an online tournament with teams around the world called 'Newcastle' to settle it

[Peter Hornsby]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dy6xlm

2 hours 26 minutes in, BBC Radio Stoke did a follow-up about Newcastle-under-Lyme Chess Club's most recent matches played over this weekend in the World Chess League.Live

Also had a fascinating conversation about chess commentary!

[Geoff Chandler]

Also had a friendly bit of banter on Facebook off the back of this with Tim Wall about which is the 'Real Newcastle Chess Club

Hi Peter,

By chance I was going through a box containing some old letters the Edinburgh Club had received n 1949. (it appears from 1822 the rule had been 'throw nothing out' and going by the number of boxes we have of correspondence dating from the 1820's they never did!)

The heading (dated 9th December 1949) suggests the Newcastle Chess Club was founded in 1838.



The letter mentions that Mr R.S. Rainbow (A young player who was trying join the club and gave Newcastle C.C. as a reference) is trust worthy. Before 1970 you could not just turn up and join. You had to make a request in writing and someone had to second you. Then you had to go through the 'Black Ball Box' (actually no black balls were involved. The balls were white. You put your hand in the hole and dropped your choice into the 'Yes' ir 'No' box.)



After the Fischer boom they had so many requests to join they lowered the bar (and I got in!) As this is a bit of chess history I am dropping this bit into the chess history section as well.

[Tim Spanton]

Sara Khadem: Top Iran chess player exiled for refusing headscarf:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64631354