Media comments on chess

[David Pardoe]

I did notice a county chess player on `The Chase` recently. Gaven somebody, I think.
Played well, but got pipped by the `fat lady`. She said she was glad to knock him out because he was probably the strongest quizzer in the team...
No other mention of chess though...

[Chris Rice]

Meet Sam Sevian

Hard to believe he's 14 years old. Maybe its the benefits of home schooling?

[Stewart Reuben]

We must ensure that Sam Sevian is invited to Hastings. Mind you, the Hastings advantage of being in holday time doesn't apply to him as he is home-schooled.
' In chess the best female players in the world play in men’s tournaments,'
That would be a clever trick for them. 1984 I first came across that solecism. Maia Chiburdanidze was asked whether she enjoyed playing in men's tournaments.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Maybe I could invite him to Coulsdon this year. It might be difficult to afford him, mind.

[John McKenna]

Letter in Tuesday's Times.
The relative popularity of football compared with rugby is easily explained by two analogies - classical v pop music and chess v draughts.

The author John Prince might find that easy, I am totally bemused.

Steward... sorry I mean Stewart, you've obviously never developed class consciousness due to things like NOT looking inside the lifeboats on the cruise ships you've been on. The stowaways are always playing checkers not chess.

Meet Sam Sevian

Hard to believe he's 14 years old. Maybe its the benefits of home schooling?

Yes, Chris, he looks big for that age - maybe it's NOT just home cooking.

Maybe I could invite him to Coulsdon this year. It might be difficult to afford him, mind.

Jack, even if you could afford him he would NOT come. Who could you have lined up against him, in your field of dreams?

[Paul Habershon]

FISCHER was the solution to 5 down in 'The Times' crossword of April 14th. The clue was 'Rashly fire entertaining school master on board'. It baffled me for some time and was almost the last I solved. For precision I think the compiler had to make two words of 'schoolmaster'. It is the policy of Times crossword editors never to have the name of a living person as a solution defined in the clue. It is how I sometimes discover that someone is dead. I don't suppose many other chess players could fairly be presumed fair game as a solution. Perhaps Kasparov might qualify after death.

[David Robertson]

As one chess champion merged into another (8)

[Simon Brown]

Child takes ridicule for chess champion (8)

5 down got me for a while on Tuesday too.

[Richard James]

Calling out the assembled masses for being a bunch of hoity-toity pinkos, though? That’s madness. That’s suicide. That’s the political equivalent of a Blackmar-Diemer gambit.

Stuart Heritage in the Guardian on Nigel Farage's performance in last night's election debate.

[John Upham]

We must ensure that Sam Sevian is invited to Hastings.

What were the outcomes of the March 2015 meeting of the Hastings Congress organisers?

How is it planned to deal with the projected funding shortfall for this and future congresses?

[Stewart Reuben]

Stuart Heritage flatters the great game if he thinks all Guardian readers understand the reference to th Blackmar-Diemer,

John Upham >What were the outcomes of the March 2015 meeting of the Hastings Congress organisers?
How is it planned to deal with the projected funding shortfall for this and future congresses?<

Hardly a media comment! However:
Con Power has stood down as Congres Director and Alan Hustwayte has been elected to that position.
The next Hastings will tke place 28 December to 5 January. The shortfall is caused because Hastings Council, the long-standing supporters of the congress, are reducing their grant to £10,000 from £20,000. If necessary that will be met this year from reserves.
There two other possible sources of funding, both of which are confidential at this time. Both will be discussed at the next meeting of the committee on 16 May.

[Neill Cooper]

Chess again on 'Have I got news for you'. You can guess the item, and the jokes.

[John Upham]

The usual stereotypical quips from host / panelists who ought to know better. Perhaps HIGNFY is hoping to swell its audience with Sun & Daily Mail readers? Perhaps we need more jibes about Poker players?

[Andy Stoker]

Sporting Witness on the BBC World service at 0500 today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nzhd6 ) featured Judit Polgar. A rather odd piece, somewhat low on facts, focused on Polgar vs Kasparov rivalry ... it appeared to indicate at one stage that Polgar had beaten Kasparov and become World Champion.

[Clive Blackburn]

The usual stereotypical quips from host / panelists who ought to know better. Perhaps HIGNFY is hoping to swell its audience with Sun & Daily Mail readers? Perhaps we need more jibes about Poker players?

I was rather surprised by the way that Victoria Coren Mitchell (a highly intelligent and experienced presenter) was happy to perpetuate all the usual tired chess myths (players taking hours over one move, etc).

If it had been a story about cheating at her own game of poker then I think the treatment would have been somewhat different!