Media comments on chess

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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John Upham
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John Upham » Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:49 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:23 pm
"a combined ECF/Tinder rating"
I must have missed this development...
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Nick Grey
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Nick Grey » Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:37 pm

Maybe Grinder as well as we ought to be inclusive.
Not helpful for juniors that ought not be on those apps.
Still trying to work out how to get these pop-ups out of internet.

Though noticed chessboxing when I logged on at 1030pm

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Thu Mar 21, 2019 9:07 pm

I have just been shown the pilot episode of "The Middleman", a 2008 comedy/superhero TV series. It's a bit weird, including a simul by a genetically engineered gorilla, where (even more bizarrely) one of the clocks is facing the wrong way. Not sure if it counts as a media comment...

Matthew Turner
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Matthew Turner » Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:10 pm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat- ... -crowdfund

Not all crowdfunding stories have a happy ending, lets hope this stays as one.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:40 pm

Macron on Brexit: "We need to get out of this checkmate. A proposed rejection of the EU with no plan can only ever lead to stalemate."

David Robertson

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Robertson » Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:25 pm

The redoubtable and venerable philosopher, (Baroness) Mary Warnock, died a couple of days back. The Times carries a fulsome obituary. As I hope you can see from the online picture. she poses in a suitably studious and learned manner - in front of a chess board.

And the chess board? Well, I can't be wholly sure, but it looks to be......you know the rest :roll:

Paul Habershon
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Paul Habershon » Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:58 pm

David Robertson wrote:
Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:25 pm
The redoubtable and venerable philosopher, (Baroness) Mary Warnock, died a couple of days back. The Times carries a fulsome obituary. As I hope you can see from the online picture. she poses in a suitably studious and learned manner - in front of a chess board.

And the chess board? Well, I can't be wholly sure, but it looks to be......you know the rest :roll:
Yes, this is a masterpiece of the genre. Not only is the board the wrong way round but there are a number of pawns of both colours on their first rank. I also think there are no kings, but with those weird sets it is hard to distinguish kings from queens. To cap it all there is no mention of chess in the text - an extraordinary picture to select in illustrating such a long and varied life.

O.G. Urcan
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by O.G. Urcan » Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:34 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:40 pm
Macron on Brexit: "We need to get out of this checkmate. A proposed rejection of the EU with no plan can only ever lead to stalemate."
Can we verify Emmanuel Macron's exact words? Dipping into this recording of his recent press conference in Brussels https://www.boursorama.com/videos/actua ... 2ce5b1da3e, I note that (at about 3'15") he said,"Proposer le rejet de l'Europe sans projet mène à l'impasse." Not stalemate, which in French is "pat."

See too https://www.france24.com/fr/20190322-eu ... heresa-may.

- O.G. Urcan

John McKenna

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John McKenna » Sun Mar 24, 2019 2:42 pm

To further clarify...

The linguistic discrepancy then would seem to arise from the BBC's translation of the French word impasse that Macron used.

Impasse does not translate to the English word 'stalemate' (a drawing position in chess... or a deadlock - Longman's Pocket English Dictionary)

It translates literally into the English word (no doubt of French origin) 'impasse' (a predicament from which there is no obvious escape, or a deadlock - Longman's Pocket English Dictionary)

Therefore if, for whatever reason, the BBC translator(s) did not want to use the word 'impasse' they should have used the word 'deadlock', not 'stalemate'.

'Stalemate' is a mistranslation of 'impasse' and implies a finality which, unlike a deadlock, cannot be broken - an idea that Macron firmly rejects.

I cannot find from where the BBC got -
"We need to get out of this checkmate," he (Macron) says.
Perhaps the translator's use of 'stalemate' led to somehow to 'checkmate'. Macron does not seem to have used the French for those two words in his reported speech of Friday 22nd March 2019.

See a French media report of the speech -

https://www.france24.com/fr/20190322-eu ... heresa-may

entitled - Macron met en garde contre une prise en otage de l’UE par le Brexit (my translation - Macron warns against the EU being taken hostage by Brexit)

Brexit bonne chance! And, confusion to the French.
Last edited by John McKenna on Sun Mar 24, 2019 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Andy Stoker
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Andy Stoker » Sun Mar 24, 2019 3:59 pm

"Jackie Eales (Letters, 22 March) neglects to mention that the PM is also, in chess terms, in zeitnot – in time pressure as the clock runs down. For those wishing to extend flimsy Brexit-chess metaphors, it’s worth noting that repeating the same position three times is a draw.
Sandy Ruxton
Oxford"
Guardian letters 23rd March 19

David Robertson

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Robertson » Sun Mar 24, 2019 4:25 pm

John McKenna wrote:
Sun Mar 24, 2019 2:42 pm
Therefore if, for whatever reason, the BBC translator(s) did not want to use the word 'impasse' they should have used the word 'deadlock', not 'stalemate'. 'Stalemate' is a mistranslation of 'impasse' and implies a finality which, unlike a deadlock, cannot be broken - an idea that Macron firmly rejects
Not so. According to the very definitive Larousse Dictionnaires Bilingues

impasse (f)

the argument ended in stalemate - la discussion s'est terminée dans une impasse

pat (m) is the term used only in chess. The figurative use of impasse yields both 'deadlock' and 'stalemate'

NickFaulks
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Mar 24, 2019 4:52 pm

David Robertson wrote:
Sun Mar 24, 2019 4:25 pm
the argument ended in stalemate - la discussion s'est terminée dans une impasse
The trouble is that Larousse is trying to translate into French a sentence which has no meaning in the original English, at least not that I can see.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:16 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Sun Mar 24, 2019 4:52 pm
David Robertson wrote:
Sun Mar 24, 2019 4:25 pm
the argument ended in stalemate - la discussion s'est terminée dans une impasse
The trouble is that Larousse is trying to translate into French a sentence which has no meaning in the original English, at least not that I can see.
I have some friends who are professional translators. They consistently say this sort of thing is the hardest part of their job.

John McKenna

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John McKenna » Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:56 pm

We players know that in chess 'stalemate' (from the Anglo-French word estale - a fixed position + Persian mat - killed) is a final result, in itself.

Whereas the non-playing general public, translators included, seem to regard 'stalemate' as a Mexican standoff, or deadlock, that will probably be broken at some future point in time.

Anyway, enough of the chess analogies...

Brexit is, and always has been, a triangular-tag-team match, best of three falls - May's Incredibiles team has already suffered two!! - or one submission - will the House's Abomnobles team never yield one?

The third team involved consists of twenty-seven foreign referees, know as the Grappalers, who are not supposed to get involved in the scrap but, after they've had a few, insist on throwing their combined great weight about.

This link rings the changes -

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profess ... atch_types

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Fri Mar 29, 2019 1:43 pm

No translation issues this time, as the language used was English (not Welsh) from the leader of Plaid Cymru in today's Commons debate on Brexit.

Liz Saville-Roberts:
[the British state is] "beset with a Tory Westminster government behaving like Olympian Gods as though our constituents, many of whom have livelihoods that depend on our relationship with Europe, as though they were mere pawns in their chess game."