English Chess Forum

Tonight, as ever was, I saw on the News that Philip Pullman (b.1946), best selling author, is to be knighted in the New Year's Honours List. His interview saw him browsing through his library in which I spotted MCO 11. Is it it generally known that he is a player? I've no idea.

http://essexroad.blogspot.com

No idea

On http://www.philip-pullman.com/qas?searchtext=&page=3

Someone wonders why he called a male character "Kaisa", a Finnish female name.

He replied that there was a writer on chess called Kaisa and he had no idea it was a Finnish female name as well.

I'm not convinced by his spelling of it - the goddess is Caissa, was he thinking of Assiac as the writer?

He has referenced chess in his books, for example

"Farder Coram was a chess player, and he knew how chess players look at a game in play. An expert player seemed to see lines of force and influence on the board, and looked along the important ones and ignored the weak ones; and Lyra's eyes moved the same way, according to some similar magnetic field that she could see and he couldn't."

Justin found it for his S&B blog some years ago.

Good Lord, so I did.

Heretofor, I had not included Sir Philip Pullman in my list of Celebrities Interested in Chess.

I could put that list on the media forum, if that is wanted.

Written while in The Seychelle on a cruise ship.