English Chess Forum

Can anyone explain to me the latest news item on the ECF site?

It also got a mention on the ECF Twitter - which is suddenly active again after several weeks of silence.

Not surprised it has generated a Roger Moore style raised eyebrow or two. Seems a bit random to me

Jonathan Bryant wrote: Seems a bit random to me

Had there been a grading list in 1939, GCHQ would have used it to list potential recruits for Bletchley Park. As it is, they didn't do badly. There's no mention of chess in particular, or mind sports in general on the application form.

"Had there been a grading list in 1939, GCHQ would have used it to list potential recruits for Bletchley Park."

They did like to rely on personal recommendation, which can be good, until the person recommending people is an enemy agent! Of course they could approach staff and say "is this fellow a good chap?"

GCHQ didn't exist until 1946, it was called GC&CS earlier, which stood for Government Code and Cypher School, although some of the BP staff called it the Golf Club and Chess Society.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Jonathan Bryant wrote: Seems a bit random to me

Had there been a grading list in 1939, GCHQ would have used it to list potential recruits for Bletchley Park.

I doubt that exactly, although I’m sure we all know the chessing codebreakers story.

No doubt there’s a link that could be made between chess the and the TV programme. The randomness of the ECF news item/tweet is not that there is no connection - you might also do a riff on chess having a cameo in the last James Bond film and being a common theme in spy movies generally - but that the ECF just slung the advert up on their webpage without bothering themselves to put it into any kind of context. As if any old junk on the site/twitter feed will do, and the readers can just fill in the gaps for themselves.

Jonathan Bryant wrote:

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Jonathan Bryant wrote: Seems a bit random to me

Had there been a grading list in 1939, GCHQ would have used it to list potential recruits for Bletchley Park.

I doubt that exactly, although I’m sure we all know the chessing codebreakers story.

No doubt there’s a link that could be made between chess the and the TV programme. The randomness of the ECF news item/tweet is not that there is no connection - you might also do a riff on chess having a cameo in the last James Bond film and being a common theme in spy movies generally - but that the ECF just slung the advert up on their webpage without bothering themselves to put it into any kind of context. As if any old junk on the site/twitter feed will do, and the readers can just fill in the gaps for themselves.

I put it up because I thought it intriguing and amusing and some people in the chess community would be interested in the project. I was! I'm keen to forge connections between chess and the wider community as you probably know.

It's not an advertisement in the sense of literally trying to flog something to our members but gives anyone who fancies a challenge a chance to take part and, presumably, make some money. As you can see from the quote below from the researcher who contacted me, he thought chess players may well have tactical and strategic skills which would be transferable to the setting and I agree with him. As I pointed out to him, prominent chess players were involved in the Service during WW2 ( Golombek, Milner-Barry etc) and, one suspects, afterwards. If one of our members was to land the job I can imagine the production company just about insisting they talk about and maybe play chess on screen and I suspect this will go out to quite a large audience. The mysterious appearance of the flyer, which will no doubt be popping up all over the place, goes with the concept.

"This will be a really exciting opportunity for those who are successful, I wanted to get in touch with you as I recognised the potentially transferable tactical and strategic skills required to play chess and thought it might be something the members of your association
would be interested in hearing about."

I concur.

Mark Jordan wrote: I concur.

I don’t necessarily disagree with anything you said, but none of it addresses the point I made.

"The ECF just slung the advert up on their webpage without bothering themselves to put it into any kind of context. As if any old junk on the site/twitter feed will do, and the readers can just fill in the gaps for themselves."

I put it up because I thought it would be interesting to some members and other readers and for the reasons stated in my previous reply. Its somewhat mysterious nature goes with the theme and is obviously tongue-in-cheek. There is no subtle strategic context forged in the dark rooms of the ECF: it is as it is.

Mark Jordan wrote:... it is as it is.

You’re missing the point by a long long way Mark

Jonathan,

I think you are missing Mark's point.

My initial reaction was that on clicking on bits of the image I wasn't taken anywhere. With my aged eyes I failed to see the website address within the image and, hey, I don't expect to have to type a website address!!!! I reckon this shows I'm not the material spies are made from, so I've retired from the fray

Michael Farthing wrote:Jonathan,

I think you are missing Mark's point.

I don’t think so, although it’s entirely possible. More likely i missed yours.

Indeed, both of them!

Any chess players missing?
http://rollofhonour.bletchleypark.org.uk/