Famous amateurs and FIDE ratings

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Does anyone know of any (reasonably) famous amateur chess players who have FIDE ratings?

[Andrew Bak]

Richard Farleigh who is an ex-Dragon from Dragon's Den has played in the Olympiad for Monaco in the past.

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=5400112

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Richard Farleigh who is an ex-Dragon from Dragon's Den has played in the Olympiad for Monaco in the past.

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=5400112

Thanks! There must be more out there, surely? Or are 'famous' people too busy being famous to get a FIDE rating?

[Roger de Coverly]

You have the ex-editor of the Sunday Telegraph - but only an ECF grade

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=274097H

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Kenneth Rogoff is a fairly well known economist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rogoff

There are three chess playing sportsman I can think of:
The boxer Terry Marsh was often described as "former London junior chess champion" (anyone have any details about that?). However he doesn't seem to have ever made it to a three figure ECF / BCF grade.
From what I saw of Lennox Lewis vs Steve Davis on TV once, I would guess Lewis was a pretty weak player.
Steve Davis was clearly much stronger than these two and there's a little more evidence of his chess prowess in that book he co-wrote with David Norwood. He might have been around ECF 120 strength.

MPs Maria and Angela Eagle must have been at least ECF 140 strength at their peak:
http://elleeseymour.com/2010/10/08/the- ... e-landed1/

Patrick Moore was a keen chess player when he was younger:
http://sites.google.com/site/egchessclub/history

Humphrey Bogart would certainly have been a strong enough chess player to get a FIDE rating, if such things had existed in his day.

The extremely annoying actor Dustin Diamond (Screech in Saved by the Bell) claimed to be of expert strength and released an appalling DVD about chess. However I have it on very good authority that he was nowhere near as good as he claimed and was more like USCF 1600 strength.

[Justin Hadi]

Wow.

[Richard James]

Interesting. I was told some years ago by a reliable source that this was genuine, but I'd like to see something more definite such as game scores or tournament cross-tables before I believe it.

Anyway, keep them coming in. It's useful for me to have them all in one place for a possible new edition of The Complete Chess Addict.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Interesting. I was told some years ago by a reliable source that this was genuine, but I'd like to see something more definite such as game scores or tournament cross-tables before I believe it.

According to this:

http://www.antoniopacelli.com/cgi-bin/p ... m&dir=news

"During 1993, Michael competed in 24 chess tournaments and went from no ranking to attaining a raking of Master within 6 months."

That might help track down what the tournaments were. He is now (assuming it is the same Michael Flatley) famous as a dancer and producer of 'The Lord of the Dance'. I had thought he was Irish, but he is Irish-American and was born in Chicago. Going back to the quote about 1993, he would have been 35 then, and to attain the FIDE rating of 2395 I would have thought he would have had to have played chess previously, especially given his age at the time of this reported feat.

Various other mentions around, such as this:

http://www.celticcafe.com/celticcafe/Da ... ebate.html

But you would probably have to contact him directly (or his agents) to get the truth of the matter.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"http://www.antoniopacelli.com/cgi-bin/p ... m&dir=news"

I read somewhere that Michael Flatley never finished higher than third in the world Irish Dancing championships, (how good were the top two? Or was he penalised for non-traditional steps?) So, how accurate is the report...?

Somebody with more time than me could go to http://www.michaelflatley.com/forum/ and ask about chess.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I've never of Michael Flatley being a chess player before. At first I was sceptical, but ten minutes Googling has convinced me it may well be true. Viktors Pupols, a pretty strong American player who once beat Fischer, mentions here that he played and lost to Flatley!

Here is the USCF page for Michael Flatley: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12601431
which links to this FIDE page: http://ratings.fide.com/seek.phtml?idco ... =&offset=0 (note that the year of birth matches the dancer Michael Flatley)

[Richard James]

From a 1997 interview:

Q: Michael, so much has been written about you. You were a boxer, a concert flautist, you are a chess player....what's the truth about you....you're not just a dancer?
A: "Well, first and foremost, I think I'm an artist. I'm a dancer and I'm a flautist as well. We added a new number into the show with music that I play the flute in which you will get to see, some of you tonight...You know, they make a mountain out of a molehill. I play a little chess, but I'm sure most of the people in this room play a little chess. A lot of it is exaggerated, but I don't pay to much attention to it."

I've also received a PM from someone with personal experience saying that he's about ECF 100 strength.

So where did this FIDE rating and the Pupols claim come from?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

So where did this FIDE rating and the Pupols claim come from?

The Pupols claim mentioned a lower rating. The higher rating may be someone of the same name.

[Eoin Devane]

So where did this FIDE rating and the Pupols claim come from?

It seems the Pupols claim comes from here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php ... 1-12601431
In round 4 one Viktors Pupols lost to a Michael Flatley, rated 2113 in the USCF system at the time. The tournament is given as being in Nevada, which ties in with the Las Vegas claim.

Note also that Flatley's tournament record (http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?12601431) has all of his tournaments being in late 1993, which ties in with the claim on one of the other sites that he reached a level of "Expert" within six months.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

So where did this FIDE rating and the Pupols claim come from?

It seems the Pupols claim comes from here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php ... 1-12601431
In round 4 one Viktors Pupols lost to a Michael Flatley, rated 2113 in the USCF system at the time. The tournament is given as being in Nevada, which ties in with the Las Vegas claim.

Note also that Flatley's tournament record (http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?12601431) has all of his tournaments being in late 1993, which ties in with the claim on one of the other sites that he reached a level of "Expert" within six months.

That tournament record lists this "Michael Flatley" as registered in the state of California. Wonder where Flatley (the famous one) was living at that time? This site: http://www.celticcafe.com/archive/LOTD/ ... atley.html (last updated 1996) says "Michael Flatley and [his wife] reside in Beverly Hills, California."

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The game statistics are here:

http://main.uschess.org/datapage/gamest ... d=12601431

(1) Find a player on there that list can be contacted and find out if they remember who they played.

(2) Contact the USCF and ask them to confirm the details of the "National Master Certificate - Earned in 1993"