International Chess Day

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Chris Rice
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International Chess Day

Post by Chris Rice » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:56 pm

Apparently happened yesterday. Who knew? Anyway I guess that any publicity is good for chess and there were a range of celebrations on the various chess web sites to mark the day. However, on FB, I stumbled on some very profound stuff from Lev Aronian's wife, Arianne Caoili, who gave some thought provoking advice:

"Happy International Chess Day. I cannot imagine my life without chess. But my take is probably more on the dark side. I think that most of all, chess players automatically expect the worst: that’s why we try to calculate and evaluate alternative variations, because we don’t expect our opponents to just play into our hands. It’s actually never about prediction, which #nassimtaleb would rightly call intellectual arrogance or Platonic thinking.

Chess is actually about anticipation of a range of futures and putting an emphasis on what you DON’T know, rather than what you do know. And it doesn’t matter how much you prepare, the only thing you can be certain of is that the position you get today never happened before, and not under these circumstances. The constant feedback loops after mistakes train your brain that it’s not about losing, but learning. And if you’ve achieved anything at all, you know that getting beaten up over and over trains your mental toughness and you expect difficulty.

All things end and you have to move on. That’s hard to deal with but also realistic. And unfortunately, no matter what your emotions are, “facts don’t care about your feelings”. That’s all very sober but good training for real life."

John McKenna

Re: International Chess Day

Post by John McKenna » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:32 pm

That's the first I've heard of it and the first time I've known Chris to be late with the chess news.

Simon Rogers
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Simon Rogers » Fri Jun 12, 2020 8:28 pm

Is there another International Chess Day planned on the same day this year?

Ian Thompson
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Location: Awbridge, Hampshire

Re: International Chess Day

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:13 pm

Simon Rogers wrote:
Fri Jun 12, 2020 8:28 pm
Is there another International Chess Day planned on the same day this year?
The answer is yes - https://fide.com/news/268.

Finding that out was easy. Finding events celebrating it is not so easy. Only one found - https://www.chess.com/news/view/2020-wo ... ampionship.

Simon Rogers
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Simon Rogers » Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:28 pm

Don't forget this Monday 20th July is International Chess Day. It also marks FIDE's 96th anniversary.
International Chess Day is supported by the UN and UNESCO.
To mark International Chess Day, FIDE is asking everyone to teach someone new to play chess, with the hope of 1 million new chess players.

Joseph Conlon
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Joseph Conlon » Sun Jul 19, 2020 10:53 am

Could the reminder for this year be moved to a new thread? The original post (to my mind) now unintentionally strikes the wrong notes since the tragic death of Arianne Caoili earlier this year.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Location: Millom, Cumbria

Re: International Chess Day

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:14 pm

I don't see why tbh? It remains as relevant as it was then.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Chris Rice
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:15 am

I agree, these were powerful words from Arianne and even though what happened to her subsequently was terribly sad, her words will resonate every year International Chess Day is celebrated.

As Simon Rogers refers to above, this year FIDE have come up with a great initiative of teaching someone to play chess and have released a short video which is also a celebration of FIDE's 96th birthday having been founded in 1924.

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MJMcCready
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Jul 21, 2020 3:12 pm

Pomposity aside, isn't everyday international chess day by its very nature? Shouldn't it be moved to December 25th as that's the day of the year where children are most likely to receive a chess set.

Some thoughts.

What would your life be like without chess? Mine would be rubbish.
What is your life like with chess? Mine is rubbish.
What is chess? Chess is a load of old rubbish.
What isn't rubbish? Everything is rubbish.

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MJMcCready
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Jul 21, 2020 3:21 pm

Ah I've just heard from an unofficial world champion, ELO rating 1165, that it's being moved to April 31st. No surprises there then.

Simon Rogers
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Simon Rogers » Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:47 am

Don't forget today (Tuesday 20th July) is International Chess Day supported by the UN and UNESCO.
Is there any special events taking place?

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:05 am

Chess.com is running a 24-hour arena event https://www.chess.com/play/arena/1264861 with 3 minutes for all moves. 5000+ players at present...

ECF has an event later also on chess.com

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: International Chess Day

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:23 pm

I have been playing a bit in the Chess.com event, at one stage it said there were 10000 people playing (which I assume means more than 10000). So what are the chances that having played Peter Large about 40 times in Epsom Chess Club's weekly arena, I now play him when there is a choice of many 1000s of opponents... Mind you, I have played a couple of opponents here three times.

One guy rated about 900 was leading a couple of hours ago, but his name now seems to have disappeared for some reason.

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