Chess boxing in the Evening Standard

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Yeah, Tim Woolgar's name and chess boxing got a full page spread in the Evening Standard. I couldn't believe it either. And I was surprised nothing had been posted here about it yet. (N.B. I'm not a great fan of the concept of chess-boxing, or is it spelt chessboxing?).

Page 31 of the Evening Standard of Tuesday 28 August 2012. The 'London Life' section. By the journalist Rosamund Urwin. My edition was the West End Final one (but it should be in all editions that day). Pictures of a chessboxing event at the Scala, a picture of Garry Kasparov, and a picture of Miuccia Prada's AW12 advert.

The article may be online, I've not checked, hopefully if it is, someone can link to it. Ah, here it is:

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/lon ... 83735.html

Lots of quotes from Woolgar. A chess-boxing event is being held at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 October (in the Loading Bay, a "cavernous underground arena"). Maybe the main hall was too expensive? Article says more details available at londonchessboxing.com. Nothing about the ECF or ordinary OTB chess. Though Woolgar is described in the article as "One of the men making chess fashionable again".

[Leonard Barden]

Normal chess is available every day online in the Evening Standard, as it has been, print or online, every day since June 1956

http://www.standard.co.uk/chess

In July 1972 made its front page headline my information that Jim Slater had doubled the Fischer-Spassky prize fund. This led to huge media interest in the next 24 hours and thus directly contributed to the resulting boom. The Standard, through its editor Charles Wintour, also offered to sponsor a chess event and I recommended the Islington Congress, which became the Evening Standard congress, received daily advance mentions in the Standard, and attracted a then world record entry of over 1,000 players.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Yeah, Tim Woolgar's name and chess boxing got a full page spread in the Evening Standard. I couldn't believe it either.

Why couldn't you believe it?

[Jonathan Rogers]

The surprise would have been Tim Woolgar saying anything about chess or the ECF.

[Jonathan Bryant]

The surprise would have been Tim Woolgar saying anything about chess or the ECF.

Well that might have been a surprise, but one thing that Woolgie has a documented track record for is the ability to get the media to print/talk cobblers about chess boxing (or chess-boxing or chessboxing if you prefer).

[Andrew Bak]

Prada, as ever, is leading the way. For in London, chess is about to enjoy the kind of profile it hasn’t seen since Garry Kasparov — now a Russian opposition leader and Pussy Riot supporter — took on Nigel Short for the World Chess Championship in the capital. Given that that was in 1993, it fits rather well with the old cliché about a 20-year cycle for trends.

This might be true, but it's a shame that the highly successful London Chess Classic wasn't mentioned.

I'm happy that Tim has managed to get ChessBoxing profiled so well, hopefully such publicity might encourage more people to normal chess as well as ChessBoxing

[JustinHorton]

This might be true

But obviously isn't.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Prada, as ever, is leading the way. For in London, chess is about to enjoy the kind of profile it hasn’t seen since Garry Kasparov — now a Russian opposition leader and Pussy Riot supporter — took on Nigel Short for the World Chess Championship in the capital. Given that that was in 1993, it fits rather well with the old cliché about a 20-year cycle for trends.

This might be true ....

I find it hard to believe that this or any other chess boxing event will have a higher profile than the 2000 World Championship match so I would suggest that it isn't.

I don't object to the high profile of chessboxing either. I do object to alleged newspapers regurgitating PR cock and bull without qualification.

[Andrew Bak]

Prada, as ever, is leading the way. For in London, chess is about to enjoy the kind of profile it hasn’t seen since Garry Kasparov — now a Russian opposition leader and Pussy Riot supporter — took on Nigel Short for the World Chess Championship in the capital. Given that that was in 1993, it fits rather well with the old cliché about a 20-year cycle for trends.

This might be true ....

I find it hard to believe that this or any other event will have a higher profile than the 2000 World Championship match so I would suggest that it isn't.

I don't object to the high profile of chessboxing either. I do object to alleged newspapers regurgitating PR cock and bull without qualification.

In the eyes of the British public, I'm sure more would be familiar with the 1993 match than the 2000 match or any of the LCCs.

Of course in the chess world, the 2000 match was as high profile as it gets.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Yeah, Tim Woolgar's name and chess boxing got a full page spread in the Evening Standard. I couldn't believe it either.

Why couldn't you believe it?

Jonathan Rogers is correct in that I was thinking much the same as him: "The surprise would have been Tim Woolgar saying anything about chess or the ECF." That should have been apparent from my closing comment. I agree that Tim Woolgar is good at promoting chessboxing. I was just disappointed that he didn't try to somewhere say something about chess or the ECF. He is still the marketing director, is he? Maybe he tried and the journalist dropped the 'boring' references to 'real' chess? Or maybe he keeps chessboxing marketing and ECF chess marketing separate, and there is more marketing in the pipeline about 'proper' chess?

If we see something of the same nature about the Agon events (I think some articles like this have appeared), or even the London Chess Classic, then I'll be happy. But to see chessboxing getting as much coverage as chess in the papers is... worrying. I realise that several papers (including the Evening Standard) have chess columns, but I'm talking about this type of full page article, albeit in a 'lifestyle/interest' area of the newspapers. Admittedly, that is better than having some of the more contentious incidents aired in the national papers...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

This might be true

But obviously isn't.

It is not clear who is responsible for that bit of reporting, but I'd take issue with the journalist over that one (and some other inaccuracies, misleading bits of the article). Though some bits are clearly promotional quotes directly about chessboxing, the stuff about chess I'd say are probably from the journalist (some bits are probably from Agon PR material).

[Jonathan Bryant]

In the eyes of the British public, I'm sure more would be familiar with the 1993 match than the 2000 match or any of the LCCs.

Of course in the chess world, the 2000 match was as high profile as it gets.

Yes, I'm sure that's right, but when I wrote 'this or any other event' I was referring to chessboxing (have edited my post to make that clearer). The claim that *this* chess boxing event is bigger than any chess in London since 1993 is absolutely ludicrous.