Media comments on chess

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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:09 pm

Simon Briggs in Sunday Telegraph about the legend Andy Murray.

"According to one coach who used to attend British junior tournaments in the 1990s, the young Andy Murray was so obviously superior to his opponents that it was like watching a draughts player and a chess player operating on the same board."

Happily, the rest of the piece was fairly coherent.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:48 pm

PLAY IT AS IT LAYS a 1970 novel by Joan Didion

I was attracted to it because of the cover. A fully clothed man is playing chess against a naked woman. The game seems to have started 1 d4 Nc6. But her clock is going. It is possible White has also played 2 e4.
I am more than halfway through. The chief protagonist, Maria, lived in LA and seems to be totally scatty. There has been no reference to chess - so far.

I leave Sri Lanka for England on Wednesday.

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John Upham
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John Upham » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:52 pm

Plot summary
The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 36-year-old Maria (Mar-eye-a) Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film director Carter Lang. The further narration is conducted from a third-person perspective in eighty-four chapters of terse, controlled and highly visual prose typical of Didion.

Maria's story begins as she is recovering from a mental breakdown in a psychiatric hospital in the Los Angeles area, but soon flashes back to her life before the hospital. A not-quite lurid view of life in Hollywood follows. Didion's late 1960s Los Angeles is a mix of grimness and glamour. Maria's journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic, as her acting career slows and her personal life collapses.

Maria moved to Los Angeles from New York City, by way of the small town of Silver Wells, Nevada. The daughter of a gambling father and a neurotic mother who bet on a mine and lost, Maria had originally moved to New York to become an actress. In New York, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets Ivan Costello, a psychological blackmailer who has no hesitation exploiting Maria for her money or her body.

In New York, Maria receives news of her mother's death in a car wreck, possibly a suicide. Her father dies soon after, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling, splits up with Ivan, and eventually meets Carter and moves to Hollywood. Later, we find that she and Carter have a 4-year-old daughter Kate, who is under mental and physical “treatment” for some “aberrant chemical in her brain.” Maria truly loves Kate, as indicated by her tender descriptions, her frequent hospital visits, and her determination “to get her out.”

An inevitable divorce, and the ensuing social chaos bring Maria to indulge in self-destructive behavior. She plunges into long nights of compulsive driving, wandering Southern California's freeways, through motels and bars, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with actors and ex-lovers. After a series of disasters for Maria, infidelity among her friends adds further chaos to her life. Her friend BZ commits suicide and Maria is institutionalized. From her hospital, Maria turns her visitors away, and plans for a day she might see her daughter again.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
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Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:08 am

Bridge for a change

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ction.html

It must be Eastbourne. One of the few recorded instances of violence at or around a chess tournament also took place there. That was the fight over a restaurant bill, rather than anything to do with an arbiter's decision.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:27 pm

I am quite surprised autistic players can be good at bridge. I would have thought it required too high a level of empathy.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:28 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:27 pm
I am quite surprised autistic players can be good at bridge. I would have thought it required too high a level of empathy.
Try not to be ignorant Stewart
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:59 pm

Apart from anything else, "autism" comes in many guises.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:05 pm

"Mr Bornecrantz said: 'I was found guilty by a kangaroo court in a case that is essentially about using the wrong stationery."

I guess an Australian should recognize a "kangaroo court"...

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:14 pm

I have now finished reading 'PLAY IT AS IT LAYS', partly with John Upham's help and there is no mention of chess. The nearest comes right at the end:
BZ 'Some day you'll wake up and you just won't feel like playing any more.'
Maria 'That's a queen's way of doing it.'

David Robertson

Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Robertson » Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:34 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:14 pm
I have now finished reading 'PLAY IT AS IT LAYS'
Joan Didion is a fabulous essayist, literary critic, and well-regarded novelist. The book cover has a great history in photographic art. The visible male is Marcel Duchamp. The all-too-visible player is Eve Babitz, a young free-wheeling student from 1970s LA. This is what she says about the chess

EVE BABITZ SAYS:

"So I’m sitting there, smoking like crazy, pretending to be bolder than I am, and then Marcel shows up. He’s wearing this beautiful suit, and he has this gay little straw hat on that he must’ve bought in Las Vegas, and he has these charming eyes that were very detached. Julian says he’s ready and I drop the smock, and Julian must’ve been afraid that I was going to have second thoughts, because he kicked the smock way across to the other side of the room.

Marcel and I sat down in front of the chess board, and he says, “Et alors,” which means, “You go.” And so I did, and he checkmated me in a single
move. It’s called fool’s mate. And I was upset because I thought I had a chance because of my tits, but I didn’t. And I wanted to put my clothes on and my glasses, and get my cigarettes, and I wanted Julian to take me to Chow Yung Fat for lunch. But he hadn’t shot enough.

So Marcel and I played another game, and then another. And he kept beating me in three or four moves. But I was getting more absorbed in the game and forgetting to suck in my stomach, and then I looked up. And there was Walter. He was just staring at us. I said, “Hi, Chico,” and he opened his mouth and his gum fell out. Then he turned and left the room.

And it was all worth it because he dropped his gum. And then, of course, the photo ended up being so famous, and they use it on things like posters for the Museum of Modern Art. Julian let me pick which take he would use. I picked the one that didn’t show my face. I liked the idea of being “and friend,” you know, of being forever immortal but without anyone knowing it was me except for my friends.

JULIAN WASSER (photographer) GETS THE LAST LAST WORD

"You’re asking me why I picked Eve to pose with Duchamp? You’re really asking me that? Oh, Jesus. You have a husband, don’t you? Ask him. [A long pause.] Those girls I was talking about before, the ones hanging around Barney’s—Eve was different. O.K., yeah, she was there to wreck relationships and steal guys, but she wasn’t just a lame-o flake, an out-of-town groupie idiot who found her sexual nirvana in L.A. She had a plan. She was the real thing. [Another long pause.] I asked Eve because she had a very classic female body, O.K.? I asked her because I knew she’d blow Duchamp’s mind. And you know what? She did. She blew his mind!"

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:56 am

I actually met Duchamp briefly in Manhattan in 1964. I was too ignorant to realise his significance. Manhattan CC played his club in the New York League.

Reg Clucas
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Reg Clucas » Wed Jan 16, 2019 9:09 pm

On an edition of Eggheads this week, one of the Sport questions had 'Chess' as one of the three possible answers. Although it wasn't the correct answer to the question, I thought it noteworthy that the quiz compilers considered Chess a sport.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Geoff Chandler » Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:33 pm

Hi,

I've been thinking...

Chess openings are evolving all the time. One day when computers have solved chess
we will be left with just one opening. The survival of the fittest.

Seems this idea was also considered back in 1978.

Page 61 of 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins.

Image

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:08 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:33 pm
One day when computers have solved chess
we will be left with just one opening.
I think there will be hundreds or thousands. All drawn unless someone changes the stalemate rule.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:34 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:33 pm
Hi,

I've been thinking...

Chess openings are evolving all the time. One day when computers have solved chess
we will be left with just one opening. The survival of the fittest.

Seems this idea was also considered back in 1978.

Page 61 of 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins.

Image
Does Dawkins reference that?
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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