English Chess Forum

Checkmate is now available on Amazon Prime!

Check Mate TV Show is for the uninitiated - it is an introduction to a fascinating world.
For the experienced player it is an opportunity to learn more.

https://www.checkmate-show.com/

I confess to being chess consultant to BBC's Eastenders. Last night, Patrick spectacularly checkmated Ted (Christopher Timothy - AKA James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small) in the allotment shed. On Monday, Ted was practicing in his shed and played a RxN Sicilian Dragon sacrifice as black when Bernadette walked in for a lesson (his line about 'playing with himself' was a bit naughty).

It has been an interesting experience, and will hopefully continue for a few weeks. No spoilers!

Here is my general blog on the subject.

http://borehamwood.blogspot.co.uk/2018/ ... nders.html

Unsolved wall in only connect

Yes, Short was the red herring, not to be included in the 4-grandmaster group. 'He' goes with the 'list' group: waiting, laundry and bucket. Pert was possibly another red herring, close to brassy, forward, fresh and smart.

The contestants looked blank even when they were told about the grandmasters.

Six Nations: England against Wales will be 'a game of chess'
By Chris Jones & Louise Gwilliam
BBC Sport

In today's Times - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news ... -qglh2f7df

After the start of the article you can read for free online it goes on to say that CSC pays its tutors roughly the same as a teaching assistant gets (£110 - £125 per day) and can't get enough tutors to satisfy demand. The article writer predicts a surge in demand for private tutors when the World Championship match takes place in London at the end of the year, and quotes Ilya Merenzon (CEO of World Chess) saying that there was a surge in New York, Russia and Norway during the last World Championship match.

"After the start of the article you can read for free online it goes on to say that CSC pays its tutors roughly the same as a teaching assistant gets (£110 - £125 per day) and can't get enough tutors to satisfy demand."

I think teaching assistants would be delighted to get that much! TAs get about £50 a day, about the same as minimum wage.

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:48 pm

and quotes Ilya Merenzon

This is not usually a good sign. Does he come out with any particular nonsense this time?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43026443

(Six Nations [rugby union] article by Jeremy Guscott)

Jeremy Guscott wrote: The whole match was a massive game of chess and that was England putting Wales in check, and check again until finally they made it checkmate.

Repeatedly checking until it's mate isn't a bad metaphor, even if in practice there's often a quiet move needed to finish things off.

Bit of an obscure example here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTOkgEFI0I&t=20s

There are several version of this short film on YouTube.

'For King and Country' by George O'Regan.

A short film (three minutes) made a couple of years ago for Remembrance Day.

It includes chess scenes, in a flashback from the trenches of WWI, in what looks like a metaphor for war, death and so on.

Obviously the accuracy of the chess depiction isn't essential here (or the real point of the film), but adding it here as an example.

Stephen Bush discusses Black Panther in the New Statesman:

What I liked about the X-Men was that I recognised something of myself in them. They were social outcasts, feared and distrusted by humanity – the superhero community’s equivalent to the chess club in a school full of all-star athletes.

Michael Appleton on "5 live Sport Extra" The first third of a game, the first 30 minutes, is like a game of chess."

Appleton's successor at Oxford United (until he was sacked last month) was a chess player.

'A Life in the Day of'' CHRIS ROBSHAW rugby union player, who has captained England.
'We look at tactics and how we can exploit a weakness in the other team, lie a game of chess.'
From the Sunday Times 18 February