Media comments on chess

[BrianRobinson]

all the moves in 90 minutes or incremental equivalent.

All moves on 90 minutes would bring it in line with the Durham County Chess Association. At the moment any DCCA players who make it through to the final of the World Championship cycle would be at a disadvantage due to unfamiliarity with the time control.

[Nick Ivell]

Dominic Lawson makes the case for Magnus v Fabiano in the Daily Mail today. The best spin that can be put on it, I suppose.

[David Robertson]

Took me a while to track down Dominic Lawson's Daily Mail piece online today. But here we are:

I'VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU... IT'S STUPID TO MOCK CHESS

Apologies — assuming you noticed — for my absence from these pages over the past couple of weeks.

I was at the world chess championship match between Norway's Magnus Carlsen and his challenger, the American Fabiano Caruana. Believe it or not, I am the elected President of the English Chess Federation; so it was not only a thrill for me to attend but a duty. And it was thrilling to witness the two greatest chess players of the day locked so closely in mental combat that it was only a rapid play-off that could settle the struggle, after all 12 scheduled games of the match were drawn.

This fact seems to have alerted the attention of the producers of Have I Got News For You. On last Friday's show the panellists took it in turns to mock the event for being 'boring'. Its script required the guest presenter, Jennifer Saunders, to pretend to yawn and declare that this was all so dull that she was 'losing the will to live'.

Yes, I know this is meant to be a comedy show: but the 'joke' that chess is boring is itself tired and predictable. It is also stupid. There is nothing dull about a brilliant football match being drawn. The same applies to chess. And, as it happens, no chess match in history had attracted so many viewers online.

Malcolm Pein, the chief executive of the charity Chess in Schools and Communities, said that as a result of the match in London 'we have seen a lot more interest in school chess. A lot more people phoning up for lessons'. This is such good news. Chess provides so much of what we should want for our young people in an age dangerously characterised by instant gratification and the quick fix. It calls for deep concentration, hard work, self-reliance, patience — but also imaginative creativity: in fact the attribute entirely lacking from that hackneyed mockery of chess on HIGNFY.

[JustinHorton]

what we should want for our young people in an age dangerously characterised by instant gratification and the quick fix.

Oh do shut up

[David Sedgwick]

Oh do shut up

A more common criticism is that we don't see or hear enough from the ECF President.

[Mick Norris]

Believe it or not, I am the elected President of the English Chess Federation; so it was not only a thrill for me to attend but a duty.

Well, no, it's not a duty to turn up at a non-ECF event is it? It might be good to turn up at a few ECF events, although presumably venturing out of London isn't possible

[Nick Grey]

Dominic put some good spin on 1993 if my memory is correct.
Jennifer Saunders comedy is less funny than it used to be.
HIGNFY is based on satirical news & fake news.
I expect they will now take the mick out of the World Boxing Championship.
What happened to their former presenter?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Oh do shut up

A more common criticism is that we don't see or hear enough from the ECF President.

Not when de MooI was President

[Mick Norris]

Oh do shut up

A more common criticism is that we don't see or hear enough from the ECF President.

The other point is that the ECF took a moral stance against the now FIDE President in voting for his opponent, because we couldn't be linked to Russians (presumably, the ones who come here poisoning people, as opposed to the ones owning football clubs); yet, it's ok to go to the WC match despite the sponsors and presence of said President?

[NickFaulks]

Believe it or not, I am the elected President of the English Chess Federation

Perhaps that could have been edited more carefully.

[JustinHorton]

Steve Gardner writes on the match in 3 Quarks Daily

[Mick Norris]

Steve Gardner writes on the match in 3 Quarks Daily

The Petroff is a crazy and complicated opening

[JustinHorton]

Also note the Shakespeare misquotation

[Adam Ashton]

Also note the Shakespeare misquotation

Nit-picking aside, quite a decent article.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Steve Gardner writes on the match in 3 Quarks Daily

The Petroff is a crazy and complicated opening

Frank Marshall used to play it, you know!