Media comments on chess

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Tim Spanton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Tim Spanton » Mon Jul 08, 2019 10:00 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 12:36 am
Stewart Reuben wrote:
Sun Jul 07, 2019 11:40 pm
In England Adams and Howell have good-paying chess columns.
Not £45k a week good, unless I'm seriously out of touch.
Quite, but who is to say it is £45,000 a week? It could just as well be described as £45,000 for less than a day's work. On the other hand, it might turn out to be £45,000 for the whole year.
https://beauchess.blogspot.com/

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:04 pm

I read in the Daily Telegraph the other day that there has been a tremendous rise in the popularity of video games among university students. But 90% of them are males. This is similar to the percentages in chess.
Is there something in the British psyche that is not understood?

John McKenna

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John McKenna » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:01 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 3:31 am
The postings immediately above strike me as a potentially interesting discussion marooned in the wrong place.

Anyway, shortly after reading them I happened on a 2017 interview with Chris Arnade, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, about McDonald's and the people who go there. And if you scroll down and look at the photos...
Fifty years on since Easy Rider was released, in July 1969, the article linked to does not make easy reading.

When the President is a fast-food junkie you can only repine -
You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it.
Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:51 am
"And if you scroll down and look at the photos..."

Interesting that the position looks quite sensible, pawns aren't scattered.
And the board even seems to be right way round, which is slightly disappointing.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Alex Holowczak » Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:05 pm

In chess, most of the money is concentrated on players in the GCT. There are 12 players in this.

John Isner is ranked 12 in tennis at the moment. He has won $997,935 in prize money so far this year, not including Wimbledon.

The PGA Tour is nearing the end of its 2018-19 season. Ricky Fowler is 12th on its Order of Merit, and has won $3,436,710 so far this season.

Last place in the GCT at the moment is $10,000.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:13 am

Alex, nobody denies that there is much more money at the top in sports such as tennis and golf. The key is TV coverage.
But the costs are also huge. I met a young man in Tenerife a couple of years ago, aspiring to be a professional tennis player. His expenses must have been much higher than the British university fees.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:02 pm

I was just watching Max Ophüls' 1948 weepie Letter From An Unknown Woman and was surprised to see Joan Fontaine, on entering and leaving a café, pass two men at a table playing chess. I don't think it's on Chess in The Cinema: is it in Bob Basalla's book?

Visible on very ropey YouTube copy from about 58:50 or so.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:22 pm

Justin
It is not in Bob's book, nor in his huge supplementary list. I have never hitherto come across Chess in the Cinema.
I'll send all that information to Bob Basalla.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:37 pm

Justin Horton

Bob has thanked meand you. He did not know about 'Letter from an Unknown Woman.'
Another triumph for this string, fast approaching 200 pages.

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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:52 pm

NOTE IN TODAY'S DAILY TELEGRAPH, not by Malcolm. Page 10

VIRTUAL REALITY GLOVE GIVES CHESS PLAYERS A FEEL FOR THE GAME

Such a glove has been invented by scientists so that players can feel their pieces, waering a virtual reality headset. The Korean team behind the device tested it in a chess game.

The glove should allow doctors to perform surgery.

This was published in Scientific Reports.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Jul 21, 2019 11:33 am

While following the Tour de France on Eurosport yesterday I was absolutely amazed to hear a commentator compare the stage to, you'll never guess....
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

John McKenna

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John McKenna » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:53 pm

Chess in lycra on bikes?

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Jul 21, 2019 3:56 pm

I don't think I have ever heard somebody say something like, 'This chess game is like a tennis match.

John McKenna

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John McKenna » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:35 pm

But, of course, playing white is like 'having the serve in tennis".

NickFaulks
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:42 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Sun Jul 21, 2019 3:56 pm
I don't think I have ever heard somebody say something like, 'This chess game is like a tennis match.
It would have to be "like a game of tennis played very slowly and without a ball", which doesn't sound quite right.

Chess has been compared to poker, mostly by irritated losers.
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:52 pm

Today's Daily Telegraph, letters page.

The real Turing test
SIR - Not oNly did Alane Turing excel at running ut he was also a mean chess player -and he combined the two things by devising a version of the game which required each player to run around the garden after every move. Given his pivotal role in the development of computing, it is amusing to see such an early example of "prallel processing." Bernard Kerrison

ACCORDING TO HARRY GOLMBEK, TURING WAS A QUEEN ODDS PLAYER!

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