Media comments on chess

[Nick Burrows]

Because it grossly extrapolates the results from a survey which asked a weak question in the first place.

Thanks Roger, that's a very thorough article by Justin.

I suppose the 100 million+ chess.com members gets closer to the total number who play chess "regularly".

[Stewart Reuben]

Charlie Storey points out from the Daily Mirror

ByNicola MethvenTV Editor
19:00, 23 Apr 2024UPDATED19:19, 23 APR 2024
|
BOOKMARK
BBC bosses are rebooting their chess coverage with a new series in which highly skilled players battle it out to be crowned Chess Master.

The game - brought to life for millions in recent years by hit Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit - is currently the fastest-growing sport in the world and, in February, was the most downloaded app for iPhones. Now BBC bosses are hoping to recapture the magic they achieved with The Master Game, which ran for seven series from 1976 to 1983. The new competition format, Chess Masters, will air across eight episodes on BBC2 next year and feature passionate players aged from eight to 80 going head to head in a series of rapid chess games.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Malcolm Pein claimed in the "Mirror" that, "When Taylor Swift waxes lyrical about chess openings in her latest album, you know chess has become cool."

Could one of you Swifities enlighten me as to which track(s) I should concentrate on?

(I would add that I'm impressed that she's done duets with Steve Tyler, Mick Jagger, Natalie Maines etc...)

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Malcolm Pein claimed in the "Mirror" that, "When Taylor Swift waxes lyrical about chess openings in her latest album, you know chess has become cool."

Looks like it isn't true. Apparently she has a song called "So long, London" and someone pretended this was a reference to The London System:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oez-5mPflRI

[Kevin Thurlow]

The court is obliged to you...

I did a search myself and found, (in "Dear John"), she says, "And I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day"

In "Mastermind", we find, "And the touch of your hand lit the fuse of a chain reaction of countermoves to assess the equation of you, checkmate, I couldn’t lose". I'm going to use that in an annotation somewhere...

There are references to queens and "black and white" and "pawn in the game", but those are fairly common outside chess.

[John Upham]

Malcolm Pein claimed in the "Mirror" that, "When Taylor Swift waxes lyrical about chess openings in her latest album, you know chess has become cool."

Could one of you Swifities enlighten me as to which track(s) I should concentrate on?

(I would add that I'm impressed that she's done duets with Steve Tyler, Mick Jagger, Natalie Maines etc...)

As everyone under 12 is aware there is a track called

"Don't U just luv me opposite coloured bishops" (there is a trigger warning for use of coloured of course)

and the highly memorable

"Me Kings are in Opposition, yeah!"

[Stewart Reuben]

Did you notice she wrote I now prefer 2...c4.
A totally original chess opening!

[Tim Spanton]

Did you notice she wrote I now prefer 2...c4.
A totally original chess opening!

Could be space-gaining, eg 1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 c4.

[John Upham]

Apparently:

"Great news! BBC to revive huge chess show as Taylor Swift causes popularity soar. The ECF director @TelegraphChess said: “The chess community has waited over thirty years for the game to return to our screens and everyone is hugely excited.” "

I never understand such hyperbole as "everyone is hugely excited"

and for the Pedant thread: Is literally everyone literally hugely excited?

I suspect not.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Did you notice she wrote I now prefer 2...c4.
A totally original chess opening!

Could be space-gaining, eg 1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 c4.

Isn't that one of Stefan Bucker's creations (IIRC called the Gotcha or something similarly silly)

[NickFaulks]

Isn't that one of Stefan Bucker's creations (IIRC called the Gotcha or something similarly silly).

It's The Hawk.

1.d4, Nf6 2.Nf3, c5 3.d5, c4 or some different move order.

This is how Jon Speelman saw it off.

https://old.chesstempo.com/gamedb/game/797986/ply/20

[John Clarke]

A particularly dumb-arsed example of using a chess analogy to be found here, concerning a particularly dumb-arsed bill currently before the NZ parliament, one of whose promoters happens to be called Bishop.
(Sorry, you'll have to sit through an ad or two, then scroll to 1.53 on the item itself. But be quick; I don't know how long the link will remain live.)

[Kevin Thurlow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Q7PE-Rsc4

35 seconds in.