English Chess Forum

VICE offers us The Phantom Queen

'Do You Dream of Terra-Two?' by Temi Oh. Another book from the free Metro box.

A very brief synopsis:
An earth like planet has been discovered but it takes 23 years to get there.
We (the Brits) hand pick 200 of our brightest 10 -12 years olds and after two
years they have been trimmed down to six and trained as a child to adult crew
who will be in their mid 30's by the time they arrive. It is a one way trip.
It's a coming of age thing set onboard a spaceship.

Chess?
The book states one of the kids fathers (surname given as Belgrave) was the
youngest ever GM till this record was broken by Bu Xiangzhi in 1999.

Opinion?
A bit too slow for me, they do not take-off till page 120. I did not finish it. Dumped it back into a freebie metro box.

Newsnight BBC2. Tonight's episode there was a report about the Ukraine crisis and the Russian army massing on their border. The BBC reporter said " The Ukraine is a pawn in a game of chess where only one side is playing."

NFL This Week, BBC2 11.15pm to 12.05am.
Tuesday 11th January.
One of the presenters, Jason Bell talked about the qualities of the San Francisco 49ers Wide Receiver, Deebo Samuel and said "he is the ultimate chess piece."

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 9:28 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:54 pm

Michael led towards his A Q Hearts and put the queen up. Viktor, a very weak player failed to cover it and he lost it when Michael next led the AH.

Seriously, that weak?

Yes, that's pretty much the bridge equivalent of leaving one's queen en prise. But I'm impressed that Karpov and Korchnoi, who are known to have had their differences (think blueberry yogurt, for example) over the years, could reconcile to the extent of pairing one another at bridge.

Roger Lancaster wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:33 am

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 9:28 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:54 pm

Michael led towards his A Q Hearts and put the queen up. Viktor, a very weak player failed to cover it and he lost it when Michael next led the AH.

Seriously, that weak?

Yes, that's pretty much the bridge equivalent of leaving one's queen en prise. But I'm impressed that Karpov and Korchnoi, who are known to have had their differences (think blueberry yogurt, for example) over the years, could reconcile to the extent of pairing one another at bridge.

I think this may be the 1971/72 Hastings tournament when Karpov was only 20 years old and Korchnoi may have been the avuncular figure looking after him. Looking back at the Premier results I was surprised to be reminded it was a 16-player all-play-all, even though I was there at the time. For many years it was just ten players. I remember standing over a Karpov-Michael Franklin post-mortem in the adjoining cafe area. Franklin was saying he didn't think he had made a mistake but had somehow lost. Karpov didn't have enough English to explain clearly why. The two Russians tied first with 11/15.

"I think this may be the 1971/72 Hastings tournament when Karpov was only 20 years old and Korchnoi may have been the avuncular figure looking after him."

Yes - I was there and saw them playing bridge together. For the uninitiated, the Russians frequently sent two players, one older one, one young one, who followed the older one around.

All is explained. Thanks to Paul and Kevin for clarifying.

There's a brief mention of chess in this BBC piece on the wider purposes of play.

I came home just after six and the wife told me she thought one of the winners on
Pointless said he was going to spend some of his winnings on chess matches.

I've just used 'Catch Up' and watched the intro bit in round one to see if there was any mention of chess. No.
Fast forward to the last round where he and his partner won £1750.
He is a cricket fan from New Zealand and his accent misled the missus. He said "Test Matches."

Not strictly a "media" comment, as the BBC were quoting an MP, but:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60071311

Oh, one can only hope.

For the record, in full:

Looks like checkmate for Boris Johnson says senior Tory Steve Baker

From August 2020 If there is one board game that can help develop the mind of an NFL QB—-chess has to be at the top of the list, for a myriad of reasons

It appears the Arizona Cardinals like chess Whether he aligns in the backfield or in the slot, Moore is a chess piece

Chess Move Ideas for Cardinals

From the last link, I particularly ejoyed,

"Hence, they weren’t running Sean McVay’s vaunted bread and butter play action bootlegs and waggles the way McVay routinely did with Jared Goff."

Now how to get that in a chess annotation...

Is a "bread and butter play action bootleg" something like Bxh7+?

And I assume when they say "QB", they mean quarterback not queen's bishop.

Has anybody mentioned the Russian film Champion Of The World on here yet? It's absout the Baguio match saw it mentioned today in a tweet from Russian Chess News - they seem to have given it an absolute panning - and it rang a bell, but maybe one existing only in my imagination.