World Chess Championship

[Peter]

Amazing, that it's pushed the Putin-Ukraine war AND a possible coup in China (for God's sake) off the front page of the BBC website.  Not sure what it says about what is or isn't democracy, first past the post or the Labour Party, but it's possible that Wow has powers we didn't know about!

[Wowbagger]

I do have super-powers, Peter! But most are well-known.

I think this article talks a lot of sense.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/02/the-guardian-view-on-chess-cheating-claims-innocent-until-proven-guilty

[Peter]

I agree that there is a lot of sense there, when it comes to condemnation by innuendo.  But they shoot themselves in the foot when they say that his cheating would be exposed if he plays in the public arena for long enough.  No, it won't, unless we know how he is cheating - if he is.  And if he is, then it's quite possible, I suppose, that Carlsen has been, too!  It's just as well that chess is not important, don't you think?!  And this is unprovable: "once a player believes their opponent is cheating, that inevitably affects their own play."  It's an expectation, rather.

I think it must be connected with hair-dos.  They are worryingly similar.  And also worrying, full stop!

[Wowbagger]

Oh, I think his cheating would be exposed at constant play at the top level because he would be subject to so much scrutiny. In a face-to-face game, players can really only cheat in one of two ways: by receiving secret signals from third parties with access to powerful computer programs, or by doing so themselves in the bogs. I think the latter can now be reasonably ruled out as it's been done and the top level tournaments have taken the possibility into account. This is why the suggestion of anal beads is partially serious: it's that level of secrecy that would be needed.

[Peter]

Mind-boggling!

[Wowbagger]

It is possibly worth mentioning that Carlsen has, in the past, expressed support for Donald Trump. With that level of batshit crazy nothing can be ruled out of his febrile imagination.

[Peter]

With mates like that, he should definitely be checked.

[Cudzoziemiec]

With mates like that, he should definitely be checked.

[Peter]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63140246

I don't think I can stand much more of this ...

[Wowbagger]

There’s an instance of unusually late development in the form of County Durham player Jonathan Hawkins. I don’t think anyone has ever suggested that he has cheated though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Hawkins#:~:text=Hawkins's%20chess%20career%20is%20unusual,traditional%20centres%20of%20chess%20activity.

[Peter]

There is no need to cheat when you come from Durham - you are already closer to God.  Although it does increase the chances of you being South African, or a New Zealander.

[Wowbagger]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2022/oct/07/how-to-at-chess-the-theories-and-fallout-of-a-huge-scandal-video-explainer

Bill Hartston wrote a book quite a few years ago called "How to cheat at chess". I have a copy somewhere.

I'm not 100% sure about the presenter's final statement in that video "If I had a mobile phone with a chess program on it, I could beat Magnus Carlsen easily". Maybe the processing power in a modern, high-powered phone is that good, but I'm not sure about the "easily?".

[Peter]

Yes, that is a bold, not to say foolhardy statement.  For a start, you'd still need to concentrate and Carlsen's hair would be a massive distraction.  I like the nuance in "I have a copy somewhere" as in "Me internalise it - never!"

[Wowbagger]

Yes, that is a bold, not to say foolhardy statement.  For a start, you'd still need to concentrate and Carlsen's hair would be a massive distraction.  I like the nuance in "I have a copy somewhere" as in "Me internalise it - never!"

It's an entertaining piss-take. I've got 5 shelves on the wall to my left absolutely rammed with chess books. The volume I was looking for is a small paperback. In fact I've just found it! Lurking between Practical Endgame Lessons and The Younger Soviet School of Chess. Hartston's book is dated rather by the fact that the cartoons and illustrations are by Bill Tidy.

Bill Hartston also wrote the "Beachcomber" column in the Daily Distress and has been a regular on Radio 4.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/08/chess-cheat-magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann

Here's some more light reading for you, Peter! ISTR that the author of that piece played a few times in the Southend Congress when I was controlling it.

[Peter]

Yes, I liked that, Wow.  But I feel reluctant to exonerate you when you talk of controlling the Southend Congress.  It all reeks of stove-heated rooms in some politburo apparatment.  The murky world of chess - whoever would have thought it?!

[Mr Larrington]

Is an “apparatment”:

• a ToBAGO
• a special flat for Party apparatchiks
• an Actual Thing wot I wasn’t previously aware of

?

Also,

[Wowbagger]

Yes, I liked that, Wow.  But I feel reluctant to exonerate you when you talk of controlling the Southend Congress.  It all reeks of stove-heated rooms in some politburo apparatment.  The murky world of chess - whoever would have thought it?!

Other sports have referees or umpires (who may be argued with) but chess has arbiters, who are also tournament controllers. I was the Fat Controller.

[Peter]

 

[Peter]

Is an “apparatment”:

• a ToBAGO
• a special flat for Party apparatchiks
• an Actual Thing wot I wasn’t previously aware of

?

Also,

ii) is closest but obviously iii) will apply, too.   It was just a rather puny pun.  Stove-heated is from the exploits of the real philosopher Descartes; apparatment from the flats in which unreal philosophers such as IS (when it was International Socialists and not an advertisement for razors) met with "comrades" to plot the overthrow of the places where people earned a living.  (Don't Ask How I Know This - fortunately I Don't Know It Any More.)

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I played in the Southend Congress a long while ago - I think it was 1990.   I was drawn against a much stronger player in the first round of the major and contrived to get into an inferior position in a Slav.  The time limits were generous, 40 moves in 2 hours each, then a second session of 20 moves in an hour.  I dug trenches, battened down hatches and managed to get to an inferior but drawn endgame after 60 moves.  It pretty much finished me and my opponent for the rest of the tournament.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I see that both sides in the World Chess Championship are calling in the lawyers.  I think that truly elevates Chess to a sport on a par with Formula 1, etc. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Where was this championship held? It's not on the Formula 1, football, etc, level until the leading tournament is being held somewhere like Qatar or Turkmenistan.

[andyoxon]

2023...

Hans Niemann's $100 Million Defamation Lawsuit Dismissed

https://www.chess.com/news/view/hans-niemann-lawsuit-dismissed

those details... 

[Mr Larrington]

Somebody needs to get onto the spods at chess.com and tell them to fix their webby SCIENCE so it works with 100% bang up to date browsers on for e.g. FruitCo fondleslabs instead of just splatting a big box telling me to update Chrome that renders the article completely unreadable

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Seems like the toys have been gathered up and put back in the pram

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66647445