Media comments on chess

[Kevin Thurlow]

"In the case of the Sevilla milliner, I thought Arsenal's conduct was simply bullying, since there was no reason to suggest there had been any attempt to deliberately associate the shop with the football club or otherwise piggyback off its name or image."

Yes - if she owned a shop in North London, you might be suspicious. I doubt she had any field gun motifs on the hats.

[JustinHorton]

Quite.

[John Upham]

Nona Gaprindashvilli was less than pleased

Netflix drawn into fresh inaccuracy row over 'offensive' Queen's Gambit

[Roger de Coverly]

Nona Gaprindashvilli was less than pleased

Was it Nona or her successor who convinced FIDE to add 100 points to every female rating apart from Susan Polgar? This was on the premise that they mostly competed in female only tournaments and the ratings had drifted out of line with those of males. It was mostly nonsense for female British players who got their ratings mainly from playing in the British Championship, Lloyds Bank, Hastings etc. Taking the points back presumably gave a boost to male players at the tail of the International list particularly when it was extended down to 2000 to match it to the increased minimum female rating, previously 1900.

[Geoff Chandler]

The book mentions Nona, but nothing I've seen about her not playing men.

"She [Beth Harmon] was not an important player by their standards; the only unusual thing about her was her sex, and even that wasn’t unique in
Russia. There was Nona Gaprindashvili, not up to the level of this tournament, but a player who had met all these Russian grandmasters many times
before. Laev would be expecting an easy win.

(cannot verify the page number - reading it, from where I copied and pasted it, online.)

[Stewart Reuben]

>Was it Nona or her successor who convinced FIDE to add 100 points to every female rating apart from Susan Polgar?<
If memory serves me correct it was a group decision. Initially Sheila Jackson was not goiing to receive the full 100 points, but Robert Bellin fought her corner. There was nobody to do so for Susan.
What should have been done was to check the percentage of male opponents each female had met in the lat two years. If zero, then 100. If 100% then 0. It would have been easy to do, but nobody consulted me and, at that time I was not a member of the QC.
The following year, the average rating of women went up, even discarding the meteoric arise of Judit.
It was my idea that all new Women World Champions got the GM title. The only opposition was expressed by Nana Alexandria.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Paris Olympics 2024

Break Dancing IN but Chess OUT!"

Going back to this, at least break dancing requires strenuous physical activity. A point against it is that it presumably depends entirely on judges' opinions of how well you have done it, like ice dancing, gymnastics etc. And judges do get things wrong for one reason or another. (OK any sport has referees etc.)

I was pondering last night that if you accepted chess in the Olympics, you would also have to accept bridge, crosswords, sudoku, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan... Still poetry and sculpture used to be in it, admittedly both requiring more physical effort.

[JustinHorton]

I was pondering last night that if you accepted chess in the Olympics, you would also have to accept bridge, crosswords, sudoku, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan...

Yes you might, but esports is a widely-accepted term now and it may be before too long that the general public accustoms itself to the idea that sport doesn't depend on a physical element.

[Mick Norris]

"Paris Olympics 2024

Break Dancing IN but Chess OUT!"

Going back to this, at least break dancing requires strenuous physical activity. A point against it is that it presumably depends entirely on judges' opinions of how well you have done it, like ice dancing, gymnastics etc. And judges do get things wrong for one reason or another. (OK any sport has referees etc.)

I was pondering last night that if you accepted chess in the Olympics, you would also have to accept bridge, crosswords, sudoku, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan... Still poetry and sculpture used to be in it, admittedly both requiring more physical effort.

It may be that the Queen's Gambit came too late to influence the voting for what is included in Paris 2024

If chess were ever accepted, then you'd have to accept that bridge etc could apply but not that they would be accepted e.g. squash often applies and fails to get into the Olympics

I think we have Los Angeles 2028 and then unsure about 2032, as they are struggling to get cities to bid, so they may be looking to take sports out rather than add them in

[Roger Lancaster]

Interview on BBC World Service, Business Matters, around 1.30 this morning with an American woman grandmaster [was only half-awake so don't recall name] to discuss Queen's Gambit and its effect on increasing popularity of chess - particularly from a female perspective.

[John McKenna]

BBC World Service - World Business Report -

... Our regular market commentator Michael Hughes explains what's behind the recent rise in the oil price, which has now gone above $50 per barrel, and what the short term future for prices might be.
And sales of chess sets are up thanks to the hit series The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, which documents the life of former grandmaster Beth Harrison. And it's womnen who are behind the trend, as we hear from grandmaster Katerina Nemcova.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172x57znct5txv

Where you can find the above quote by clicking on "Show more".

[Wadih Khoury]

Former grandmaster?
Beth Harrison?
Womnen ?

Did someone get paid for this?

[John McKenna]

Former grandmaster?
Beth Harrison?
Womnen ?

Did someone get paid for this?

As Roger L said, "was only half-awake so don't recall name".

The World Service keeps odd hours so the staff are also probably only half-awake most of the time.

[Geoff Chandler]

As above, it just takes one person say 'Beth Harrison' and now it's stuck.

"The first chapter introduces us to young Beth Harrison (played as a child by Isla Johnston)"

https://butlerscinemascene.com/2020/10/ ... utability/

[Stewart Reuben]

Kevin >
I was pondering last night that if you accepted chess in the Olympics, you would also have to accept bridge...<

Both bridge and chess are recognised by the IOC. The organisers of each Olympic games could always offer either or both. Monopoly is a gambling game and is less likely ever to be accepted, as is poker.
Paris 2024 makes a great deal of sense for chess -FIDE started there in 1924.
I met the secretary of the British Olympic movement in Parliament some years ago. He said he had nothing against chess in the Olympic games from a technical angle. He just thought there were already too many sports clambering to get in.