English Chess Forum

There will be a segment on chess involving a discussion/debate between Bill Hartston and Angela Eagle MP on the reasons why there are less female players and Bill's assertion that there have never been any great female players. It will be on air between 10:00-10:45.

It will be interesting to hear his explaination why Judit Polgar isn't a great chess player, considering for 2 years (when she was more active) she was ranked in the top 10 in the world

Apparantly he said this on a Radio 3 show called Night Waves in a discussion with Pete Millican. Hopefully that means more to other people than it does to me!

BBC Radio 4, 10-10.45am.

There may be a chance to hear it again, sometimes features are repeated in a weekend show.

You should be able to listen via http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlv ... des/player once it's been aired.

iPlayer link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_12_2010/

The item starts at about 34:30 and runs to about 42:40. Nothing unfamiliar in it - Hartston (mispronounced twice by the presenter) says that women's brains are different from men's; Eagle disagrees.

Comparing chess to train spotting was hardly a compliment. A shame that they chose two people who haven't played competititve chess for 20 years or more. He appears to have had very little positive to say about chess since he stopped playing and the fact he didn't know Judit Polgar had been in the top ten in the world shows how out of touch he is. I also thought the MP's comments about girls to be somewhat dated albeit she came across better than he did.

We have far better qualified people to speak on this issue to the media:
Sabrina/Jovanka as Co-Managers for Women's Chess
Loz as a member of the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess

I don't understand why we still have Hartston/Keene fronting everything.

I don't understand why the media keep on trotting out retired, disaffected or inactive players to comment on chess.

It is about time they updated their standard pool of commentators.

I would ask CJ to use his influence to halt this irritating feature. Does the BBC have a standard list of so-called current experts on chess? If so, someone needs to advise them appropriately.

A very unhelpful contribution from William Roland Hartson IMHO

Hartston could easily become to chess players what Nick Clegg has become to students needing a grant...

John Upham wrote:I don't understand why the media keep on trotting out retired or inactive players to comment on chess. It is about time they updated their standard pool of commentators.

I would ask CJ to use his influence to halt this irritating feature. Does the BBC have a standard list of so-called current experts on chess? If so, someone needs to advise them appropriately.

A very unhelpful contribution from William Roland Hartson IMHO

I belatedly had a phone call from the ECF office asking me to find someone but by the time I'd found a volunteer the producer of the show had already asked Angela Eagle. It appears they spent most of their time trying to persuade Susan Polgar and then left it very late to look for alternatives.

Comparing chess to train spotting from Bill and saying how uncomfortable girls are made to feel from Angela was hardly good PR

If you wish to provide feedback to Angela then http://www.angelaeaglemp.co.uk/ would seem to provide the means.

John Upham wrote:If you wish to provide feedback to Angela then http://www.angelaeaglemp.co.uk/ would seem to provide the means.

Or William Hartston here: [email protected] He's their poetry editor.

John Upham wrote:I don't understand why the media keep on trotting out retired, disaffected or inactive players to comment on chess.

The media tend to use established figures who they know to be articulate, informed and interesting.

IanDavis wrote:
The media tend to use established figures who they know to be articulate, informed and interesting.

In this case : articulate = yes, informed = no

and I'll leave you to decide on the other quality.

See http://twitter.com/#!/BBCWomansHour

Ironically the producer did say they were more interested in articulate speakers than strong chess players after telling me they'd chosen Angela Eagle