Media comments on chess

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Tim Spanton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Tim Spanton » Thu May 05, 2022 6:27 pm

I yesterday began reading Iberia by Julian Sayarer, coming across this gem on P30:

I think of Ronaldo, that footballer from the South Lisbon tenement blocks, one of those neighbourhoods with the external stairwell exits, where the seagulls sit atop of chimney pots like chess pieces, and you go down through the washing lines, down through the balcony railings and then the man in a vest always smoking on his doorstep, down through to where the child's ball bounces on the street beside the wrong side of the tracks.

Apart from the chess simile and the awkward writing style, what is remarkable in this paragraph is the utter tosh about Ronaldo, who was born and bred about as far from Lisbon as it is possible to be and still be on Portuguese soil, ie 600 miles away in Madeira.

Three pages earlier Sayarer, paying tribute to the Portugal he claims to love, asks whether the country is Mediterranean, "a sea it hardly touches." This is true, at least in the same way that Britain "hardly touches" the Mediterranean. Actually, a claim could be made that more of Britain than Portugal touches the Mediterranean if one counts Gibraltar as being part of the former.

Luckily I can ditch the tome as I browsed a secondhand bookshop in Kenilworth this afternoon and came away with Peter Mayle's A Year In Provence, a book I have not read, possibly from reasons of inverted snobbery, for £1.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Thu May 05, 2022 7:30 pm

Tim Spanton wrote:
Thu May 05, 2022 6:27 pm
about as far from Lisbon as it is possible to be and still be on Portuguese soil, ie 600 miles away in Madeira.
Provided we neglect the Azores, about half as far away again.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Mon May 09, 2022 4:34 pm

I came across CHESS VALLEY for the first time today. Apparently there is a beautiful walk quite near to where I live in Buckinghamshire, following the River Chess.
https://www.chilternsaonb.org/uploads/f ... or-Web.pdf

The whole walk is about 10 miles. That is too much for me, certainly by myself.
A photographer would be needed.

Roland Kensdale
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roland Kensdale » Mon May 09, 2022 5:36 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Mon May 09, 2022 4:34 pm
I came across CHESS VALLEY for the first time today. Apparently there is a beautiful walk quite near to where I live in Buckinghamshire, following the River Chess.
An 18th/19th c. player named Sarratt wrote an historically important work on chess. Someone once commented that there is a town Sarratt on Chess, as a remarkable coincidence. (Whether there is a demand for this information I do not know!)

David Sedgwick
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Sedgwick » Tue May 10, 2022 1:27 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Mon May 09, 2022 4:34 pm
I came across CHESS VALLEY for the first time today. Apparently there is a beautiful walk quite near to where I live in Buckinghamshire, following the River Chess.
https://www.chilternsaonb.org/uploads/f ... or-Web.pdf

The whole walk is about 10 miles. That is too much for me, certainly by myself.
A photographer would be needed.
At least one e2e4 event was held at a hotel in the Chess Valley.

The main playing hall had one excellent feature. There was no mobile phone reception.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue May 10, 2022 1:32 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Tue May 10, 2022 1:27 pm
At least one e2e4 event was held at a hotel in the Chess Valley.
It's still there. Google for De Vere Latimer to find reviews etc.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Wed May 11, 2022 10:31 am

Then we should hold a chess event at De Vere Latimer.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Wed May 11, 2022 7:07 pm

Just saw a chess-themed Peugeot ad. Can't trace it on YouTube - don't know if it's aired in the UK?

EDIT: here you go
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Roland Kensdale
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Roland Kensdale » Sat May 14, 2022 6:47 pm

Charles Windsor filmed next to a chess set. He says he doesn't play. No explanation of why it is there. At around 1.26: https://uk.style.yahoo.com/future-king- ... 22356.html

Clip also used in Friday's Have I Got News For You.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sat May 14, 2022 6:52 pm

That Peugeot ad was an original way of using chess.

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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sat May 14, 2022 7:07 pm

I very much doubt Prince Charles was a chess player. I think Ray Keene told me they were on the same staircase at Trinity, Cambridge.
His older son is reputed to have joined the chess club at university when he went to a Scottish one.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat May 14, 2022 8:44 pm

Roland Kensdale wrote:
Sat May 14, 2022 6:47 pm
Charles Windsor filmed next to a chess set. He says he doesn't play. No explanation of why it is there. At around 1.26: https://uk.style.yahoo.com/future-king- ... 22356.html

Clip also used in Friday's Have I Got News For You.
If you lack sufficient respect for someone to use their correct name, then I don't understand why you would wish to post about them in this thread.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sat May 14, 2022 10:30 pm

You mean he should actually be Charles Mountbatten-Windsor? Or what exactly??
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

David Sedgwick
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat May 14, 2022 11:41 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Sat May 14, 2022 10:30 pm
You mean he should actually be Charles Mountbatten-Windsor? Or what exactly??
His correct style is HRH the Prince of Wales. I regard Prince Charles as acceptable.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sun May 15, 2022 12:17 am

But does "style" always matter above all else? IIRC his eldest son was known as Mountbatten-Windsor at university.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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