Media comments on chess

[Stewart Reuben]

I made a mistake. The Spectator solution did not fit in.
The solution for both the Sunday Times and Times was 1 Nd5. Ray told me this was a coincidence. The two position were quite different.
It used to be very easy to win the Spectator competition. Now the prize is £20 I have only won it once. Sunday Times, also £20, once. Times just once won a book consolation prize.
When Ray used one of my positions he told me I would not be allowed to win the prize.

[Phil Neatherway]

Nigel Adkins says Reading are playing 'chess' with injuries


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27034556

what on earth is he going on about?

[Roger de Coverly]

what on earth is he going on about?

It sounds more like the management of a 4NCL squad. You have three matches of six or eight boards, but hardly any of the players can play all three games. So you have to build a team from players playing the one game or two games. Thus with his injury problems that he didn't have footballers capable of lasting ninety minutes. It's not part of chess rules that you can take a piece off the board and replace it with another one, so I think he could have said "I have a cunning plan" just as much as "I'm playing chess"

[Ian Wallis]

A strange video report from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26785855

The Russia/Ukraine crisis illustrated first with a normal set and then with some bizarre moves on a giant set. Apparently, Russia (Black) moves first and gets about a dozen moves (beginning 1...h6 2...g6 etc.) before Ukraine gets a turn.

Typically they couldn't get the board the right way round!

[Geoff Chandler]

Pointless last week had famous Nigels.

Nigel Short was there with a low score - none of the competitors picked him.

I heard Sol Campbell on the radio last month stated the 'Sol Campbell is gay' chants
started up when the fans discovered he played Chess.
if you google: 'sol campbell + chess' you will see a twitter link discussing this.
I do not have a twitter account so cannot give a link.

[Jon Mahony]

Pointless last week had famous Nigels.

Nigel Short was there with a low score - none of the competitors picked him.

Yeah my mum and dad are big fans of the show, I went round to see them last week and it was first thing they asked me “What’s the name of that Nigel thingy who plays Chess?! It was on pointless and we couldn’t think!”

I was quite pleased to get one that no one on the show picked last week, celebs that played famous people: Philip Seymour Hoffman = Truman Capote

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Pointless last week had famous Nigels.

Nigel Short was there with a low score - none of the competitors picked him."

He was remembered by 8/100. (I would have gone for Nigel Gresley as the railway engineer, which was a rather pleasing 5.) If it's any consolation to Nigel, in the next round they did F1 competitors of last year, and only about 15 got Fernando Alonso, and only 40 odd got Sebastian Vettel who has been world champion for about four years.

[E Michael White]

Girls and Chess

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -at-chess/

Why are the media so called, when their views are often extreme ?

[Kevin Thurlow]

Just because views are extreme, it doesn't make them wrong!

In general, girls are probably less likely to enjoy competitive sport or games. But there are certainly impressive exceptions.

[Rob Thompson]

Girls and Chess

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -at-chess/

Why are the media so called, when their views are often extreme ?

What do you find extreme about that?

[E Michael White]

Nothing of course; it was an unassociated wordplay on media.

[Stewart Reuben]

Australian Chess Bulletin.

Movie: Life Of A King

Eagle Entertainment have advised us they will be releasing to DVD & BLR in Australia a new film titled “Life of a King”.
The film, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., is based on the life of ex-felon Eugene Brown who established a chess club for inner city teenagers in Washington DC.
A trailer for the film can be viewed on the company's You Tube Channel -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9iZzweA ... e=youtu.be
The film is scheduled for Australian release on July 9. A review may appear in a future issue.

[Colin S Crouch]

On the Scientific American piece, is it the case that most of us have the stereotypical viewpoint that academic psychologists tend to be obsessed in setting up stereotypes? Or perhaps "stereotype threat"?

I got bored trying to count up the number of stereotypes used in this brief article. Perhaps this just shows that chessplayers tend to get bored quickly?

[Gerard Killoran]

Ray Keene on TalkSport now. Can nothing be done?

[Stewart Reuben]

Gerard, I presume you mean to encourage further media coverage relating to Ray Keene. After all, he raised more sponsorship money than everybody else in chess put together. Recently he made another valiant effort.