Media comments on chess

[Kevin Thurlow]

"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63108879"

Yes - I was struck by the headline - it is not really abnormal for cheating to occur in any of those activities, or any other sport/game. There's match-fixing in football, cricket, even boxing and wrestling...

The fishing cheating was quite inventive though. There was a splendid example in Guernsey, where someone broke into the Aquarium (an ex-tourist attraction) and stole a carp, then pretended to catch it in a competition, but a rival recognised the fish(!?) and the cheat was exposed.

[Joey Stewart]

I've heard of that fishing trick before, but I thought the sport was even more niche then chess so not even worth bothering to cheat - I figured nowadays people would just Photoshop themselves with a 100lb carp if they want to look like a big shot.

[JustinHorton]

Javier Aguirre in El País (probably paywalled):

El fútbol no es ajedrez y eso es lo bonito ("Football isn't chess and that's the beautiful thing about it")

[Roland Kensdale]

Ray Keene It’s on Talk TV around five thirty pm. Sunday (today) UK time.
He is talking about the Magnus allegations of cheating.

I am currently on a cruise on my way to Malta. If somebody could record this and provide me with a copy in due course, I would be grateful.

I watched this Keene interview today when tuning to Talk TV for the first time. It lasted longer than I expected. The cheating controversy was the starting point, Keene's view slating Carlsen as a bad loser. I was puzzled by his assertion that the alleged anal beads vibrate when Niemann is 'about to make a bad move'. Is an accomplice watching for a Niemann feint?

The interviewer did also ask typical layman's chess questions, which elicited information about the amount of money in chess, the expansion in online play as a result of The Queen's Gambit and the Covid lockdown. Keene approved of the QG film but mentioned the Gaprindashvili error ('never played a male grandmaster'), disproved by the fact he played her himself. However, when asked about the length of his longest game he replied '3 days' (at the 1971 British) but did not sufficiently explain how adjournments used to work, so the impression of continuous play, day and night, was given.

The interviewer seemed genuine when he said he had really enjoyed the conversation, though he did have to apologise to viewers when Keene used the expression 'pissed off' when referring to his reaction to losing.

There was much more which I have not mentioned.

I have the programme recorded on my Virgin TV box, but do not know if it is thus possible to send a 'copy' to Stewart.

https://youtu.be/iM7_7NIU03s at 1:43

Kevin O'Sullivan 2.10.22

[Roland Kensdale]

https://youtu.be/iM7_7NIU03s at 1:43

Kevin O'Sullivan 2.10.22

Ray spoke well and was urbane and knowledgeable.

My heart was in my mouth when he mentioned raising money for charities, but these were bona fide: floods in Pakistan and Ukrainian refugees.

He mentioned his latest work, '50 shedloads' or similar which might introduce a whole new generation to his oeuvre.

[JustinHorton]

[John Sellen]

From todays Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/ ... rock-nroll

"Cheating, groupies, big money and drunken brawls: how chess went rock n’roll"

I seem to be missing out , clearly I have been going to the wrong congresses !!

[JustinHorton]

Stephen Moss is a cheat

[Roger de Coverly]

Stephen Moss is a cheat

What he has confessed to is

Occasionally, in online games where I have been testing out particular openings, I have used a chess engine (a dedicated computer program) to look for the best moves to try to get an understanding of positions.

That's equivalent to looking up an unfamiliar position in a book or article. The questions come as to whether the games were rated and whether the opponents were aware.

I think it can be a valid training method, but it's cheating the opponent unless deliberately set up that way by mutual agreement and within the terms and conditions for using the chess server. Better to only consult the engine, book or database before and after the game.

[JustinHorton]

He writes:

if the chess platforms on which I play found out, I would be banned

[Kevin Thurlow]

Judit Polgar's Festival included a discussion on "Women in Chess - Women in Science". (I'm only 12 minutes in, so cannot really comment on it, even if anyone cared what I thought. At that point David Smerdon is about to start a presentation.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVED0ij1qC8

[Jon Hill]

"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63108879"

Yes - I was struck by the headline - it is not really abnormal for cheating to occur in any of those activities, or any other sport/game. There's match-fixing in football, cricket, even boxing and wrestling...

The fishing cheating was quite inventive though. There was a splendid example in Guernsey, where someone broke into the Aquarium (an ex-tourist attraction) and stole a carp, then pretended to catch it in a competition, but a rival recognised the fish(!?) and the cheat was exposed.

It was a bass!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe ... y-20974144

I'd argue recognising one of those is even harder than recognising a carp

[Kevin Thurlow]

Apologies for the error - a friend of mine is a keen fisherman and he's always saying "carpers" are weird, so I must have decided this was a carp...

[JustinHorton]

Watching Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) and...



(The Spanish subtitles mean "I take your queen".)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Grandma had just died and I was far from home. Then I had a drink – and the pain vanished (The Guardian)

By Adrian Chiles, with a passing chess reference:

It was a school exchange. I was paired up with a lad I’ll call Siegfried. We had nothing in common. This was entirely my fault, because in the week we filled out the form about our interests, I had taken up chess. I duly declared chess to be my main interest in life. It wasn’t. My main interests were football, music and the unrequited adoration of a succession of girls. I quickly realised I was hopeless at chess and gave it up but, by then, the wheels of the pen-friend selection machine were turning. It needed no particularly great application of Teutonic logic for me to be paired up with the German school’s chess champion. Poor Siegfried looked every inch the school chess player. He wore the kind of glasses that make your eyes look bigger. [...]

The article is not really about chess, but (as can be seen from the title) about drinking of alcoholic beverages by Chiles (or rather his efforts to finally drink less). Made me wonder if anyone else had chess feature in school exchanges?