English Chess Forum

There is a third reference to chess in today's Sunday Times main section page 25.
It is in a long article about the Ocado warehouse which relies on robots to move the M&S goods around.
At 564,000 sf it is staffed by 2000 robots and 1500 humans.
The robots, each about the size of a washing machine, whizz around on top of a large grid, each flashing a green light.
They move at 9mph, like rooks in a never-ending game of chess. Only this chess game has 2000 pieces and 800,000 squares and is 3D, with 21 levels. The article continues for over a page.
David Howell's chess column is, of course, the the other article. There may be still more that I have yet to come across.

Chess in the Simpsons compilation:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1UMeLOg68cI

Magnus appears at the end.

Sky Documentaries 9pm Thursday
LIVERPOOL NARCOS
A documentary about Liverpool as a centre for the drugs trade in the early 1980s. It concentrates on the kingpin Michael Showers. A picture of him shows him posed in front of a chess set and board, set up correctly.
I have no idea whether there are any other chess references in this documentary.

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:18 pm

It concentrates on the kingpin Michael Showers. A picture of him shows him posed in front of a chess set and board, set up correctly.

Have Michael Showers and Jonathan Manley ever been seen together?

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:18 pm

Sky Documentaries 9pm Thursday
LIVERPOOL NARCOS
A documentary about Liverpool as a centre for the drugs trade in the early 1980s. It concentrates on the kingpin Michael Showers. A picture of him shows him posed in front of a chess set and board, set up correctly.

Like so

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:48 pm

Like so

I rest my case.

I watched that documentary. There ae a number of chess references. e.g. drug pushers being pawns. Michael Showers plays a whole game, but you only see the black pieces and not the opponent.
I like it when chess imagery is used. That keeps alive the idea that chess is central to our culture. However, I am not happy when, as so often happens, the chief criminal is also the top crook.

FROM Kate Harrris's Lands Of Lost Borders - A Journey On The Silk Road:

"Visas for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan came with fixed entry and exit dates, meaning they had to line up perfectly in time and space, like moves in a chess game."

Bill Hartston doesn't cover himself in glory here:

@BBCArchive
#OnThisDay 1990: On the Line investigated why the chess world hadn't caught up with the fiction depicted in The Queen's Gambit.

https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1 ... 43082?s=20

Thanks for posting this, it certainly brought back some memories. You might spot Demis Hassabis in the clip.

Matthew Turner wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:57 pm

Thanks for posting this, it certainly brought back some memories. You might spot Demis Hassabis in the clip.

You have to be quick. Alexei Shirov quickly shut him out.

As Matthew says, it brought back memories.

In fairness to Hartston, I think his initial comments seem to relate to Freudian beliefs and those of Reuben Fine, not necessarily his own beliefs. But Cathy is right of course, it's a game.

I think Bill's comments my well have been him joking. He was being deliberately contentious.
My view has long been that , more men play chess than women because more men play chess than women. It is about 90% in Britain. The sheer weight of numbers leads to men being better players.
Too little is made of the fact that there is no age snobbery in chess. GM Shirov was playing alongside the little boy Hassabis and nobody comments because we are used to it.

A bit late, I have noticed that the current issue of Private Eye quotes BT Sports' Karen Carney saying

"it's like a chess match - neither side is making the first move".

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:06 pm

there is no age snobbery in chess.

Many older players make hostile comments about juniors really quite frequently