Media comments on chess

Stewart Reuben · Post by **Stewart Reuben** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:42 pm

A third Wimbledon comment. By John McEnroe about Federer's rather easy match today:
'unlike chess where you can tip the king over.' Here you have to play until the bitter end.'
Response by the other commentator, ''But here you get to shake the hand of the king'.

I always think of tennis as the sport most like chess. I have sometimes discussed matters with tennis administrators.

IM Jack Rudd · Post by **IM Jack Rudd** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:44 pm

I'd probably put snooker in that position, but tennis is up there.

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:53 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote: 'unlike chess where you can tip the king over.' Here you have to play until the bitter end.'

I don't know to what extent players do this, but isn't it possible to "retire hurt".

You can also decline to return serve.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/j ... ledon-2015

Stewart Reuben · Post by **Stewart Reuben** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:16 am

Roger >I don't know to what extent players do this, but isn't it possible to "retire hurt". You can also decline to return serve.<

If you had watched Wimbledon today, you might have seen a playing being booed because it was thought that, at one stage in the match, he wasn't trying. It certainly looked like that to me. He snapped out of it, won a set, but still lost.
Tennis is different from chess in that you can be in a bad position, but still win. When chess is a spectator sport people sometimes resign too early.
It is quite common in tennis when two breaks down in a set, for a player to go through the motions, but not really try his utmost. That is to conserve energy for the next set. Of course sometimes a player becomes so dispirited he might as well resign - but he doesn't.
I doubt anybody in tennis play-acts retiring hurt. Of course I wouldn't actually know if it happened. Nor have I seen it happen in chess.

Stewart Reuben · Post by **Stewart Reuben** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:30 am

Another matter that attracted considerable attention at Wimbledon Monday is Murray's match. Murray had won the first two sets 6-1, 6-1.
Then Karlovic called for the trainer and took a time out. That is allowed in the rules and is fairly common. He won the third set 6-2 (or 6-1). Murray played horribly.
Now Murray took a time out. He won the fourth set 6-1 and with it the match.
Very, very occasionally there are similar time outs in chess. I can immediately think of four occasions.

JustinHorton · Post by **JustinHorton** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:46 am

Stewart Reuben wrote:Tennis is different from chess in that you can be in a bad position, but still win.

Eh?

Matt Fletcher · Post by **Matt Fletcher** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:23 am

Stewart Reuben wrote:Tennis is different from chess in that you can be in a bad position, but still win.

I'll just leave the end of Van Kampen - Van Wely here...

On chess in the media, Andrew Flintoff talked a bit about chess on Desert Island Discs the other day - he and his brother used to play as kids:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060yk4m

Kevin Thurlow · Post by **Kevin Thurlow** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:33 am

"Murray had won the first two sets 6-1, 6-1.
Then Karlovic called for the trainer and took a time out. That is allowed in the rules and is fairly common. He won the third set 6-2 (or 6-1). Murray played horribly.
Now Murray took a time out. He won the fourth set 6-1 and with it the match."

That was Seppi, not Karlovic. I noticed at the end that Seppi came to the net and laughed as he said something and Murray laughed as well - possibly discussing that very point.

Flintoff mentioned chess in his autobiography and how he beat Atherton (Cambridge graduate) in a rain delay, who was allegedly furious at losing to such an intellectually inferior person...

Mike Gunn · Post by **Mike Gunn** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:52 pm

From an exhibit in the Garden Museum ("Some lessons of city parks") #8 In small gardens lots of tables and seats should be provided for joint activities such as chess, and for reading alone.

Stewart Reuben · Post by **Stewart Reuben** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:47 am

Sorry I should have been more explicit.
In chess , if you have a bare king against a king and queen, you have no chance whatsoever against an opponent of any standard with time on his clock and may as well resign.
In tennis you can be 2 sets down, stand 0-5 in the third and be 40 love when receiving. But you can still win.

Phil Neatherway · Post by **Phil Neatherway** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 4:31 pm

Comment taken from the BBC tennis website's text commentary on Williams v Sharapova:-

"Decibels rising on Centre. The shrieks? On a par with a police siren. The applause? The sort you hear at a chess match."

I have no idea what they mean.

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 11:38 pm

A Brighton chess scholarship

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/13379451 ... holarship/

(also in the Telegraph)

John Upham · Post by **John Upham** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:20 am

Somewhat less pleasant

Keith Arkell · Post by **Keith Arkell** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 3:30 am

At 25 mins 26 seconds an appeal to chess in a debate between Richard Dawkins and the Archbishop of Canterbury:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JB6WfQrrWM

Ian Thompson · Post by **Ian Thompson** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:15 pm

Today's Time Out magazine mentions a chess event in the Things to Do section.

It appears from the MSO website that this event has been running for several years.

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