Media comments on chess

[Stewart Reuben]

I hope you, your wife and son never bet on the same football match, or race, etc. If you do, you must consult, in case you take opposite sides of an outcome. You could have bet against each other and thus saved the juice.
Betting on the lottery is a rather a special case. Perhaps I should do so. But, surely that is nonsense, they only return about 50% of the stake money. The other 50% goes on expenses, tax and good cases. But I know of only one good cause - me. So were I to win £1 million, would I not fret that it should have been £2 million? Not really, at my time of life, £1 million would be enough.
That is to do with the theory of the utility of gambling money. There are learned tomes written about that.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Stewart,

Son never bets on horses, he has some half-assed theory about a human being on the back of it so it will be rigged.
(probably got it from me). But wife, who used to teach horse riding, carefully watches the horse finishing 5th, 6th 7th
etc and she declares it's been held back, takes a note of it and yes a race or two later romps home at long odds.

Of course scepticism is rife in my family. Even the cat won't touch his feed till the dog has tasted it and lived.

Wife never goes near football. Son got all the certs in the Scottish Cup. picked up 50 odd quid.
She strolled along nicely with her £1.00 e/ways getting winners and placed horse all day. She got that
Silver Streak (20-1) who beat a 1-5 favourite. Everything I touched fell, pulled up or is still out there running.

We have a share in a horse. Glynn, it's down to run this Tuesday, Newbury 14:05, owner will decided
on Monday if ground suits it. (worth a shot it will £5.00 e/way if odds over 8's.)

Gambling is in the DNA.
Dad was a Bingo at the Mecca Bethnal Green. I don't know if it's still there.
He once advised a BBC2 programme on the art of Bingo Calling (like everything there is knack too it)
and he also appeared on one of those horrid Breakfast Programs talking about it. He got paid!

When they did the national link-up, the whole country played the same game for a few thousand quid,
it was his voice everyone heard throughout the land calling out the numbers. I know this because he said
if I ever played in it, I never did, then do not let on he is my dad else I won't get my winnings.
(it seems scepticism is rife in the Bingo Halls as well.)

I like these wee chats. Maybe Carl will gives our own thread.

(it's off-topic, but this is your thread, you started it in 2012. Good move!)

[JustinHorton]

I was just reading José Luis Borges' Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius and came across a chess reference:

Cada tantos años iba a Inglaterra: a visitar (juzgo por unas fotografías que nos mostró) un reloj de sol y unos robles. Mi padre había estrechado con él (el verbo es excesivo) una de esas amistades inglesas que empiezan por excluir la confidencia y que muy pronto omiten el diálogo. Solían ejercer un intercambio de libros y de periódicos; solían batirse al ajedrez, taciturnamene...

This is translated thus by Norman Thomas di Giovanni:

Every few years he went back to England to visit - judging from the snapshots he showed us - a sundial and some oak trees. With him, my father had cemented (the verb is extreme) one of those English friendships that begin by eschewing confidences and very soon dispense with conversation. The two men used to engage in an exchange of books and magazines and, with scarcely a word, would duel at chess.

Also

Encantada por su rigor, la humanidad olvida y toma a olvidar que es un rigor de ajedrecistas, no de ángeles.

Mesmerized by that planet's discipline, we forget - and go on forgetting - that theirs is the discipline of chess players, not of angels.

(According to this Spanish piece, Borges mentions chess quite a few times, including his poem of that name.)

[JustinHorton]

Very nice clip from 1966, but who is Jonathan?

[Simon Rogers]

Very nice clip from 1966, but who is Jonathan?

Hope you had a good Christmas Justin.
The only Jonathan I can think of from the top of my head, that might fit the age is Jonathan Mestel. But it's only an educated guess.

[JustinHorton]

Mestel was nine and three-quarters

[Kevin Thurlow]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertain ... s-55470540

[Paul Robert Jackson]

I noticed the 1993 film "Innocent Moves" is currently available on Netflix.
About Josh Waitzkin.

[David Sedgwick]

I noticed the 1993 film "Innocent Moves" is currently available on Netflix.
About Josh Waitzkin.

That is well worth watching, if you have not seen it.

I saw it at the 1994 British Championships with Adam Raoof and the late Rod McShane, father of the then 10 years old Luke. Rod thought that the film was pretty realistic.

[Gerard Killoran]

Very nice clip from 1966, but who is Jonathan?

There were two junior events in London on the same day, neither at Earls Court.

Daily Mirror - Thursday 29 December 1966.png

Birmingham Daily Post - Thursday 29 December 1966.png

[Paul Robert Jackson]

I noticed the 1993 film "Innocent Moves" is currently available on Netflix.
About Josh Waitzkin.

That is well worth watching, if you have not seen it.
I saw it at the 1994 British Championships with Adam Raoof and the late Rod McShane, father of the then 10 years old Luke. Rod thought that the film was pretty realistic.

The book "Searching for Bobby Fisher" written by Josh's father is also worth reading.

[Stewart Reuben]

I have often wondered why they changed the original name, 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', to 'Innocent Moves' in Britain.

I always recommend this film to parents with aspiring child chessplayers. It is one everybody can watch and enjoy.

Josh became an IM, but turned his attention to martial arts.

[Roger de Coverly]

Rod thought that the film was pretty realistic.

There's a memorable scene where the arbiter bans the parents from the playing room, to give the children a bit of peace and quiet to play.

[NickFaulks]

Malcolm now on Talk Radio, top radio station of 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IDifeCvsgA

[Kevin Thurlow]

"There's a memorable scene where the arbiter bans the parents from the playing room, to give the children a bit of peace and quiet to play."

Yes - a brilliant scene. CCF adopted that very good idea. It also stopped the parents and coaches cheating. I was arbiting there once and almost had to physically eject one coach when the round started.