Media comments on chess

[Gary Kenworthy]

Sponsoring the 17th Olympiad - I think that is rather important in chess history alone.
Wait for the obits. He was only dead two hours when I heard.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Castro was a keen chess fan, but a very weak actual player.

(unlike, of course, Che Guevara - who was genuinely good)

[Gary Kenworthy]

Revolutionists do play chess. Many. Yes. Sometimes more than sponsors (try also some music connections, arts, theatre etc - we have discussed Maxim Gorky already. Mentioned Delius from Bradford on music and chess etc).

e.g. try this for a full story about A A Alekhine (without the Sorbonne doctorate).

http://alchessmist.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... stsky.html

extract...... Trotsky, Lenin and Kamenev - Party-Congress (1919):

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, was a Bolshevik and Marxist theorist. He was also one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution (1917), second only to Lenin in importance . Trotsky was the founder and commander of the Red Army. He fell out of favour with Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and was expelled from the Communist Party, as well as deported from the then Soviet Union. He moved to Mexico where he was subsequently assassinated. In chess circles, Trotsky is also known for being the second cousin of David Bronstein (the famous Russian Chess Grandmaster).

There have been many discussions, on various chess sites, about the mythical account of Alekhine's life being spared by Trotsky (following a game of chess). Although the story is very likely apocryphal, this is the first written account I have read of this alleged meeting between Alekhine and Trotsky. It was published in the magazine Sacremento Chess News (July 15th, 1951) and probably came originally from a recent (at the time) newspaper article..........

[Gary Kenworthy]

Con't
I thing the below refutes all the stories that Alekhine pre-knew the odds, against the head of the Red Army.
I personally, find this 1951 publication, a very realistic account. Even though the prose are Cold War USA style. Usually you just got shot, or to save a bullet worked to death. So how did Alekhine escaped his imprisonment?
Or from credible non-published accounts, placed and tied down in a lock and the flood waters switched on (opening the Moscow to Leningrad ship canal by Stalin). etc

The Dr Zhivago book and accounts of a similar time had to be very mild, many reasons, but it gives an insight into reality. The reality was much worse.

"THE GAME THAT SAVED MY LIFE:
Alexander Alekhine, the world's chess champion, before his death was asked by friends what was the most exciting and dangerous chess game of his life. This story was his answer!

As A Captain in the Czarist army and a member of a noble family, I was placed under arrest shortly after the Bolsheviks came into power. In the depths of despair, I was sitting in an Odessa prison and pondering my fate when the door was flung open and four members of the political police entered the cell. A fifth man entered and I recognised him immediately from his photographs. It was Leon Trotsky, I was certain my time had come. "Captain Alekhine," said one of the police, "Comrade Trotsky wants to play a game of chess with you." With that he placed an elaborate chessboard and set of men on the small table. I had heard of Trotsky's chess fanaticism and it was obvious that reports of my ability had reached him.

Trotsky sat down without a word, to begin the most interesting and dangerous game I ever played.

For I was faced with a titanic problem. I was convinced that on the outcome of the contest would depend my life. But - did Trotsky so badly want to beat me that he would allow me to live if I lost? Or did he feel that a person gifted sufficiently to conquer him at the board should be entitled to life?

I looked into Trotsky's face for a possible clue. It wore an intense expression, but beyond that gave me no indication. The police were impassive. Trotsky made the first move, a conventional opening. I decided to play a non-decisive, week for the nonce, waiting for him to show his hand. He played well, but not brilliantly.

After some fencing, I decided to cast the die. I would play my best and beat him as quickly as I could. It did not take long. Slowly Trotsky rose from the table, "I lose," was all he said. He made a peculiar gesture, a sort of wave of the hand, then walked quickly from the cell. The next day I was declared a free man, and given permission to leave Russia if I desired. The paper was signed by Trotsky. Attached was a personal note in which the powerful revolutionary said he had enjoyed our chess game very much.

That game of chess gave me my life. I went to France to continue medical studies but decided to devote the rest of my life to the game. "-- ""As told to Albert A. Brandt."""

[JustinHorton]

Are these media comments on chess?

[Gary Kenworthy]

Sacremento Chess News

[Gary Kenworthy]

Alekhine?

[NickFaulks]

Are these media comments on chess?

It isn't "media comments on chess in the past 60 years".

[Gary Kenworthy]

Hi Gary,

As the chessgames link states. the Lenin - Gorky game is a perfect move for move reproduction
of the radio match. Deschna Chess Club (White) and the Lenin Chess Club played in 1961 and is
listed as such in Israel Horowitz's 'Chess Openings: Theory and Practice'

Not surprised the Hitler - Lenin picture has been used to spark off discussions in American forums
and people believing it is real. (t was in the newspapers so it must be so).
These people are gullible, stupid and half crazy...infact they sound like my kind of people.
Point me to them. I want to join, I'll fit right in.

Hi Geoff,

So it was a radio match, I wonder how the moves were actually transmitted in this chess game?
If by telephone - a scrambler device? - liked invented by Alan Turing
If it was international postal notation, it would be too slow, and they could be consider postal players and shot as spies.(?)
If it was teleprinter (non-Morse traffic) there then could be high command involved.
If was Morse based, then Dr J M Aitken could have decrypted the moves. Scottish Chess Champion, Dr Aitken , (formerly of Hut 6 BP) was an expert in Morse based communications. It would have highly motivated him, anything Morse based.

Rgds Gary

[Mick Norris]

BBC chess story; but not Carlsen

young Russian GM dies in fall

[Roger de Coverly]

Another BBC piece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30006019

The hundreds of millions fantasy refuses to die.

They can follow tournaments online: The London Chess Classic, a tournament that takes place each December, can attract nearly half a million followers.

The Carlsen-Anand game will be followed by millions.

A recent poll put the number of chess players in the world in the hundreds of millions.

[Ian Kingston]

Another BBC piece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30006019

That's from two years ago, and mentioned on this very thread: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 70#p149470

Not a peep, yet, from the BBC about Carlsen–Karjakin.

[Nick Grey]

That's because BBC not paying their $15? Nothing to report is there?

[Matt Mackenzie]

There certainly isn't much to report today, tbf

[JustinHorton]

Another BBC piece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30006019

The hundreds of millions fantasy refuses to die.

They can follow tournaments online: The London Chess Classic, a tournament that takes place each December, can attract nearly half a million followers.

The Carlsen-Anand game will be followed by millions.

A recent poll put the number of chess players in the world in the hundreds of millions.

Yeah I remember that piece. You'd expect David Edmonds to know better.