Media comments on chess

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:00 pm

I am not sure what this is, but here it is anyway
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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John Clarke
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by John Clarke » Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:39 pm

Putin's chess-board?
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Joey Stewart » Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:48 pm

A few years late but I just found probably the funniest chess video ever - Magnus carlsen being interviewed by rainn Wilson (star of the office USA). Skip to 30 seconds into the video for the start of the interview.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZLp4h0V_mU
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

J T Melsom
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by J T Melsom » Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:01 pm

Jonathan Coe The Accidental Woman. Maria strikes up a friendship at university with Nigel member of the Arbuthnot Society, a club for socialist chess enthusiasts, and which is contrasted with the Crompton Society for existentialist bridge players of which another admirer is treasurer.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:49 am

J T Melsom wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:01 pm
a club for socialist chess enthusiasts
I was wondering if such a club ever existed. I suppose Red Star Atticus of Liverpool may have qualified. A long way back in time, there would be William Winter.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Jun 17, 2022 8:34 am

Oh, we have copies of that in our lock-up, I'll have a look when I'm there this morning.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:20 pm

That's like me saying Touchdown here is not very intelligent because I beat him three games out of five the last time we played chess.
Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison in JFK, which I happen to be watching (well, kind of watching).
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Jun 25, 2022 9:42 am

Another example of the way Spanish uses "check" and checkmate" colloquially in a way that English doesn't: headline Checkmate To The Bees. (That's a literal translation since we don't really say "checkmate to" anyway. In fact there's an interesting problem in translation here - how would you render the headline, in British newspaper style, while if possible maintaining the checkmate reference?)
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Joey Stewart » Sat Jun 25, 2022 11:02 am

I was playing a horror game called prey last night and randomly came across these mate in two puzzles written on a whiteboard (not actually part of the game at all, just a bit of decoration). They may just be compositions stolen off someone else but if not it is quite possibly the best bit of chess in the media I've ever seen as they require a really deep understanding of how humans calculate to make the solutions extremely difficult to find (there is one though)


Image
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sat Jun 25, 2022 11:38 am

Hi Joey,

https://prnt.sc/f4vuab

These are the two problems. White to play and mate in two.


Godfrey F. Heathcote,
1st Prize American Chess Bulletin, 1911
https://www.yacpdb.org/#search/OHFRNXAz ... LzEvMA==/1


Gerald Frank Anderson, 1st Prize, Il Secolo (Meredith Ty.), 1921-1923
http://www.bstephen.me.uk/meson/pidsearch.pl?pid=21224

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Joey Stewart » Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:15 pm

Ah thanks Geoff, a for fixing my link and b for restoring credit to the rightful composers of the problems.
First one I was almost given up on, usually these mate in 2 involve a kind of zugzwang position where any move by the defender allows a mate and often it is a subtle king move that is the winning one but this particular case defies even that pattern.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Jun 26, 2022 12:55 am

Hi Joey,

Yes I like the Heathcote one.



Black has 20 odd moves and each one allows mate next move.
Most come from the Black Queen moving allowing Qxh7 mate.
and Qxb7 then Nf2 mate. Any Bishop move allows Qb1 mate.

The problem is playing a move that does not break the zugzwang.
Moving any piece apart from 1. Nd4 stops mate next move.

I thought for a brief second I had bust it (two solutions) with 1.Rh5 and was thinking,
of course, that is why they are in the game 'Prey', they are cooked prize winning problems.
but I quickly saw 1.Rh5 that allows 1..Qe3+ and no mate next move. 'they are both sound.'

Wonder why they are in the game? Check a read me file or the packaging, it might mention
if you solve the chess problems you get an extra life or whatever or you might get asked
when the game is over to enter a code. (Nd4) for a bonus game.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Joey Stewart » Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:09 am

It is a horror game set on a research space ship which gets overrun by aliens, most of the crew get wiped out before the story begins but you find lots of evidence of their former social activities like dungeons and dragons, chess, cards, sports etc... The chess problems are not actually solvable in any way in the game, it just adds a little bit of flavour to the scenery and makes the dead crew seem more like real people rather then one dimensional, devoid of personality, meat for the grinder as most horror charcters tend to be written.

Not the best space horror game I've played though, that would be dead space - it's scarier then any film you've ever seen, although sadly I don't remember any chess puzzles featuring in it so I guess that takes it down a notch. *Edit* I just checked and there is in fact a dead space inspired chess set available https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/373587731589305425/
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.


Geoff Chandler
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Geoff Chandler » Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:43 pm

In the film 'Charlie Wilson's War' (2007) Tom Hanks is looking for a
weapons expert and is introduced to a young man giving a chess simul.

When told he is the man they need. Tom Hanks is not convinced and replies;

'...if Afghanistan is ever invaded by Boris Spassky.'

A tomato was dodged there. The film is set in the early 1980's
and they could easily have said 'Kasparov' who would have
been much better known to a 2007 audience but in 1980 as yet
unknown outside of chess. (they would have been OK with Karpov.)

The film is based on a true story so that conversation mentioning
Spassky could have really taken place. The chess clip is here;
(send the kids out of the room, the language is a bit colourful)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZXtCHoRb50

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