Media comments on chess

[Clive Blackburn]

I just heard David Coulthard describe F1 tactics "like a game of chess where you sacrifice a pawn for some advantage that you get later on down the line"

Yes Sean that seems to be a favourite simile of his, he said virtually the same thing during the Malaysian GP!

Commenting on today's Malaysian GP on BBC1:-

"It's like a game of chess, it's almost like you are sacrificing a pawn to get back a piece with another move"

[Neil Graham]

I just heard David Coulthard describe F1 tactics "like a game of chess where you sacrifice a pawn for some advantage that you get later on down the line"

Yes I heard that as well. Yesterday's FA Cup Semi Final between Millwall and Wigan had the commentator state "like a chess grandmaster they're playing the long game".

Edited after Ian Kingston's post.

[Ian Kingston]

Yesterday's FA Cup Final

Better tell Manchester City and Chelsea they were wasting their time this afternoon...

[Neil Graham]

Yesterday's FA Cup Final

Better tell Manchester City and Chelsea they were wasting their time this afternoon...

Well it was at Wembley and I sincerely hope that Manchester City will be wasting their time in due course.

[Neill Cooper]

"Crazy chess students from Bournemouth hoping to make it checkmate at contest finals"
(From today's Bournemouth Daily Echo)

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/1 ... st_finals/

[Sarah de Lisle]

Neill - I just finished reading that in my Echo.

[John Clarke]

More than one commentator on the live CNN feed from Boston has referred to the closing stages of the siege against Suspect #2 as an "endgame". Not that that term used alone has a great deal of significance any more - it's become pretty much independent of its source by now.

[David Robertson]

A Guardian article on Chess, Cricket and computers. Promises more than it delivers, as ever

[Geoff Chandler]

I see the school that is mentioned in Niall's post/link did indeed go on to win the final.

http://www.seekernews.co.uk/2013/04/che ... d-masters/

It ends with "Be Sociable, Share!" so that is what I am doing rather just post the link.

--------------------------------

The youngsters from Harewood College beat their rivals, and last year’s champions
Bournemouth School, in a hotly contested and tension-filled match.

This title caps off what has been an amazing year for the school which has gone chess crazy.

In the last 12 months the school has gone from having three or four students playing chess to
more than 70 taking part during parts of their lunch breaks.

Executive headteacher, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, said: “We are thrilled that our students have
taken the chess crown.

“Chess has really taken the school by storm and we hope this success will encourage even more
of our students to take up this wonderful game.”

The boys from Harewood have gone from being rookies to masters in a short space of time
thanks to the help of two dedicated volunteer chess coaches.

Eric Sachs from Poole Chess Club and Paul Errington from Bournemouth Chess Club give up
their time every week to help coach the boys in chess.

In the run up to the competition they have been putting the chess team -Connor Duburguet,
Steven Speck, Alex Haynes, Ralph Linder, Victor Bueno, Jiahao Zhang, Richard Coles and Zac Butt
– through their paces.

Eric said: “We are thrilled that the boys’ hard work and dedication has paid off. Paul and I are
immensely proud of them.”

The best overall individual performances were dominated by Harewood students with the
players with most points going to Zac Butt and Connor Deburguet.

Harewood took home the St George Meyrick Trophy, awarded to them by the
Mayor of Bournemouth Phil Stanley-Watts.

Be Sociable, Share!

[Geoff Chandler]

Today on 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is' Philip Serrell bought a naff wooden chess set
(unweighted - not felted) for £6.00 at car booty and sold it to a school (cannot recall) for £25.00.
He asked for £35.00 but the teacher said if he played a pupil and the pupil won then the fee would be £25.00

Up stepped some young lad called 'Ben'. Ben won and the school inherited this naff chess set for £25.00.

[Ian Thompson]

Today on 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is' Philip Serrell bought a naff wooden chess set
(unweighted - not felted) for £6.00 at car booty and sold it to a school (cannot recall) for £25.00.
He asked for £35.00 but the teacher said if he played a pupil and the pupil won then the fee would be £25.00

Up stepped some young lad called 'Ben'. Ben won and the school inherited this naff chess set for £25.00.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... _Car_Boot/

Having skimmed through the programme there are mentions of the set at approximately 18:30, 20:00 and 28:30 minutes into it (and possibly others I missed as I didn't watch the whole programme).

It was Royal Grammar School, Worcester. Definitely a cheap set. I'm amazed anyone would pay £25 for it. The teacher (Nigel) even said it was "cheap wood" and guessed it had cost £5. Are the sales genuine?

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Ian,

Apparently the money raised is for charity so I guess it's all above board.

I did not see it all, Mrs C. called me through at the end as there was "Chess on the telly."

[Stewart Reuben]

Is PYMWYMI the worst program on TV? There must be many contenders. Have they thought of selling it?
They had the almighty gall to get the chessboard round the right way.

Monday in the French Tennis there was a comment 'They're playing chess'.
Of course they weren't.

[Roger de Coverly]

There's a series starting Tuesday 12th June on Channel 4 9pm entitled Child Genius.

The description says

Between 2007 and 2010, the Channel 4 documentary series Child Genius followed eight gifted children growing up in the UK. Now the search is on to find Britain's brainiest child in a new four-part series of the same name which will follow 21 five-to-11-year-olds as they showcase their amazing mental abilities in a competition organised in association with Mensa.

The chess connection is that one of the contestants is captioned as

Joshua is the UK's top under-10 chess player

[John Upham]

I am afraid that I do baulk at the inappropriate use of the word "genius".

Talented is fine, gifted is allowable, prodigy should be used with great care.

You can apply the word genius to someone who has demonstrated very original thinking and creative abilities. They should be someone that history notes in such ways. They should be internationally renowned.

Someone who happens to be exceptional at a sport is simply that.

The closest anyone in the world of table tennis has come to be recorded a "genius" would be Jan-Ove Waldner (SWE).

Possibly the chess world would first think of Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal in this context.