Black (Grandmaster) Lives Matter

[John McKenna]

thanks - I decided not to go too deep into the accompanying comments ....

Probably wise. My feeling is that English chess has a problem dealing with diversity and related issues, online chess has more of a problem than English chess, chess.com and their forums/comments has more of a problem that online chess in general

All that may be true, Jon.

On the other hand significsnt parts of "diversity" may have a problem with English chess if this forum is anything to go by.

And, when Justin H writes -

"... rather than this what-are-people-talking-about-I've-never-heard-of-this reaction which is far too characteristic of sections of society, like the chess community, which are predominately made up of older white guys."

He knows whereof he speaks..

[JustinHorton]

All that may be true, Jon.

On the other hand significsnt parts of "diversity" may have a problem with English chess if this forum is anything to go by.

What on Earth does this mean

[John McKenna]

Come on, Justin.

Where is the diversity here on the forum and in the OTB County & club matches?

The 4NCL is more diverse but is it diverse enough?

If/when online cheating & abuse is ruled out then diversity may flourish online in a way acceptable to all.

At the moment all chess is between a rock and a hard place just as a great many nations are.

And, if it was not so Avrukh may never have said what he did to Carlsson's face(bk.)

We are mostly under a heavy strain and some are not coping well at all. (Even MJ McCr is not his sunny self anymore.)

[JustinHorton]

If/when online cheating & abuse is ruled out then diversity may flourish online in a way acceptable to all.

What

[John McKenna]

Well there's got to be a large diverse crowd playing online now 'cos there's nowhere else to go and you know only too well the problems with it.

[John McKenna]

If those problems magically disappeared you'd probably spend more time there than OTB, no?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Racism is no big thing in England

Uh huh

Yesterday: racism isn’t a thing in England

Today: organised campaign to boycott Sainsbury’s after owner suggests taking down statue of slave traders might not be a completely terrible idea.

Life comes at you pretty fast these days.

[Mick Norris]

Not a word about the "Avrukh controversy" in the article from P. Carlsson himself. (However, there was a quote from a female member of the English chess community that did nobody any favours not even herself.)

If you read it now, you'll see

Update June 9: A comment by WIM Sabrina Chevannes, which made the impression of being inserted out of context, has been replaced by Shahade's reply.

along with

Thank you to GM Pontus Carlsson for sharing his experience and deepening our understanding of the issue of racism throughout the chess world.Thank you also to the many commenters sharing their support. Unfortunately, we also received comments that violated our TOS and clearly showed the sort of racism at issue in this piece. At this time, we have locked the comments so as not to provide a platform to further such speech.

You can see the reply from Jennifer Shahade here

[Matt Mackenzie]

I mean, how anybody can think "racism is no big thing" in the UK genuinely puzzles me.

[Mick Norris]

Well, we had the Windrush scandal amid the hostile enviroment, and Johnson referring to picaninnies with watermelon smiles and women in burkas resembling letter boxes, yet nearly 14m people voted for a racist to become PM

[J T Melsom]

Obviously the 14m were voting on a much wider range of issues so we can't ordinarily dismiss all Tory voters as racist. We can safely say that Johnson's racism didn't prevent him becoming the chosen leader of his party. Thats where the scrutiny should start. And whilst many parties ditched candidates at the last General Election a fair few racist Tories remain.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Indeed, a councillor of theirs who indulged in Holocaust denial has just been readmitted.

[JustinHorton]

While I don't at all disagree with the above few postings, and do not at all wish to discourage discussion of the topic, we are perhaps well into Not Chess territory and may wish to steer back towards the experiences of people of colour within our community

[Matt Mackenzie]

Despite making the above posts I second that, actually

[J T Melsom]

Agreed. This thread has largely been dominated by white men discussing the issue in the abstract, and I'm as guilty as anyone. This problem also arises when we discuss sexism in chess. The only racism in this thread directly arising in the chess community is that directed at Pontus Carlsson. I've not witnessed direct racism at a chess event, but that is not to say it doesn't arise. And the chess community may be remiss in the welcome it extends to people of colour. We really need to hear from those with first hand experience, but I fear some may be intimidated by some of the rubbish on the subject that has already been written.