The Queen of Katwe

Official Trailer

I enjoy true stories. I am not a really big fan of science fiction stories or movies. If you want to treat me, give me a good cowboy book or movie, a real life story or a true story. This movie is about a true story of a Chess Champion. African true stories, and from some other places in the world, are inspiring, as the struggle to reach for dreams is so much more intense due to so many problems and issues people from developing countries need to deal with on a daily basis -things people from developed countries take for granted. Today, some of those problems and issues are because of certain countries in the West who tried to gain, only for themselves and who put leaders in place just to shush their conscience. They think they get things right, but they are totally wrong. I’m glad that there is, once again, a movie about chess, to show the power of this game in real life and to highlight the struggles of some people in this world.

True Story of a Chess Champion
Walt Disney Pictures has revealed the colourful first Queen of Katwe poster. The true story of an inspiring chess champion stars Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo (Selma, Interstellar), Oscar winner and Tony Award nominee Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and newcomer Madina Nalwanga.

For 10-year-old Phiona Mutesi (Nalwanga) and her family, life in the impoverished slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle. Her mother, Harriet (Nyong’o), is fiercely determined to take care of her family and works tirelessly selling vegetables in the market to make sure her children are fed and have a roof over their heads. When Phiona meets Robert Katende (Oyelowo), a soccer player turned missionary who teaches local children chess, she is captivated. Chess requires a good deal of concentration, strategic thinking and risk taking, all skills which are applicable in everyday life, and Katende hopes to empower youth with the game.
Phiona is impressed by the intelligence and wit the game requires and immediately shows potential. Recognizing Phiona’s natural aptitude for chess and the fighting spirit she’s inherited from her mother, Katende begins to mentor her, but Harriet is reluctant to provide any encouragement, not wanting to see her daughter disappointed. As Phiona begins to succeed in local chess competitions, Katende teaches her to read and write in order to pursue schooling. She quickly advances through the ranks in tournaments, but breaks away from her family to focus on her own life. Her mother eventually realizes that Phiona has a chance to excel and teams up with Katende to help her fulfill her extraordinary potential, escape a life of poverty and save her family.

Directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) from a screenplay by William Wheeler (The Hoax) based on the book by Tim Crothers, Queen of Katwe is produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher (The Darjeeling Limited) and John Carls (Where the Wild Things Are) with Will Weiske and Troy Buder serving as executive producers. Disney’s Queen of Katwe opened in U.S. theaters on September 23, 2016. Resource: commingsoon.net 

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Four Corners

Fatherless and raised by his grandmother, thirteen year old Ricardo Galam lives in South Africa’s Cape Flats, a unique and volatile sub culture dominated by two Number gangs, the 26 and 28. Ricardo’s future as a chess prodigy is threatened by his growing interest in the 26 whose local leader is grooming him as a potential member. Unknown to Ricardo, the father he’s never known has been released from prison. Farakhan, a reformed general in the 28, is back in his old neighbourhood, an intruder in 26 territory. In a story that is at times raw and violent at other times touching and true. FOUR CORNERS is a gripping drama set against the backdrop of a gang war in Cape Town which has been raging for a 100 years; a little known fact. 

(Quote from youtube)

By watching this trailer, I don’t think I ever want to be in an area where any gangs are roaming and scavenging for anyone they can manipulate to their needs. It must be scary and you must feel intimidating to live in places like these, but the same time you feel sorry to know that there are people who only know one life and that’s this kind of life. Then the same time I wonder if you could change any adult who only knows this kind of life?

This movie has received 13 Golden Horn nominations at the SAFTAs – South African Film and Television Awards March 2015. 

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Chess and Nabokov

Nabokov in Montreux, Switzerland – image: Wikipedia

Nabokov was a Russian Novelist, but also a chess composer. I was reading about ‘reading’  and ‘readers’ when I came across him – see the section about Jose’s blog where everything started this morning. I found his background very interesting -he was a chess composer, but not a chess player himself. I didn’t know about chess composers and found it quite odd that he actually never played. If he’s a composer of chess, then he must have been a good player as well. It’s interesting to see a writer turning game play into narratives. Even in his book Lolita, he uses chess as part of his narrative.

This was his 3rd novel he wrote, turned into a movie. From google-books the review:  The Defense, is a chilling story of obsession and madness. As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive,  distracted, withdrawn, sullen–an enigma to his parents and an object of ridicule to his classmates. He takes up chess as a refuge from the anxiety of his everyday life.  His talent is prodigious and he rises to the rank of grandmaster–but at a cost:  in Luzhin’ s obsessive mind, the game of chess gradually supplants the world of reality.   His own world falls apart during a crucial championship match, when the intricate defense he has devised withers  under his opponent’s unexpected and unpredictabke lines of assault.[note to self: must try and read some of his books one day]

This is a quote from Wikipedia, and it’s worth reading more on Wikipedia about him: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov; 22 April  1899 – 2 July 1977- was a Russian-born novelist. Nabokov’s first nine novels were in Russian. He then rose to international prominence as a writer of English prose. He also made serious contributions as a lepidopterist and chess composer. Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) is his most famous novel, and often considered his finest work in English. It exhibits the love of intricate word play and synesthetic detail that characterised all his works. The novel was ranked fourth in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels; Pale Fire (1962) was ranked at 53rd on the same list, and his memoir, Speak, Memory, was listed eighth on the Modern Library nonfiction list. He was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction seven times, but never won it.

After the 1917 February Revolution, Nabokov’s father became a secretary of the Russian Provisional Government, and the family was forced to flee the city – after the Bolshevik Revolution – for Crimea, not expecting to be away for very long. They lived at a friend’s estate and in September 1918 moved to Livadiya; Nabokov’s father was a minister of justice of the Crimean provisional government. After the withdrawal of the German Army (November 1918) and the defeat of the White Army in early 1919, the Nabokovs sought exile in western Europe. On 2 April 1919, the family left Sevastopol on the last ship, then settled briefly in England. Vladimir enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge, studying zoology at first, and then Slavic and Romance languages. He later drew on his Cambridge experiences to write the novel Glory. In 1920, his family moved to Berlin, where his father set up the émigré newspaper Rul’ (Rudder). Nabokov would follow to Berlin after his studies at Cambridge two years later.In March 1922, Nabokov’s father was assassinated in Berlin by Russian monarchist Piotr Shabelsky-Bork as he was trying to shield the real target, Pavel Milyukov, a leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party-in-exile. This mistaken, violent death would echo again and again in Nabokov’s fiction, where characters would meet their deaths under accidental terms. (In Pale Fire, for example, one interpretation of the novel has an assassin mistakenly kill the poet John Shade, when his actual target is a fugitive European monarch.) Shortly after his father’s death, Nabokov’s mother and sister moved to Prague.

I was reading Jose-English102’s blog about Nabokov about reading and I quote from his blog what Nabokov says: ‘According to Nabokov, a good reader should ‘ notice and fondle details.’ He believes that a good reader should use their imagination to visualize the story and try to understand it from the writers point of view, instead of making assumptions. He says that a good reader must re-read to be able to fully understand what the author is trying to say and to paint a better picture in their mind of the story. Nabokov also mentioned that a good reader should have a good imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense.’

From ‘Brainpickings’ I found this interview: In the fall of 1969, British broadcaster and journalist James Mossman submitted 58 questions on literature and life for celebrated author Vladimir Nabokov — butterfly-lover, master of melancholy, frequenter of ideal bookshelves — for an episode of BBC-2′s Review. Nabokov ended up answering 40 of them in what is best described as part interview, part performance art, eventually published in Strong Opinions (UK; public library) — a 1973 collection of Nabokov’s finest interviews, articles and editorials. Some of the conversation is preserved in this rare original audio, with highlights transcribed below:

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Chess as a Slow Dance of Seduction

It’s a long time since I’ve blogged something chessy – so here goes… time is tight! I don’t even have enough time to play a proper chess game. Luckily, it’s almost Easter Hols and then I might have a few spare hours to play a game or two. I do miss playing chess though! I’ve come across this movie-article and thought to share it with you. The movies can’t go without chess! It’s Spring and trees around us are almost covered in blossoms. This flower-pic was taken in August last year. I hate these bees we have here, they are surely not friendly and look quite scary.

In ‘Queen to Play’ Sandrine Bonnaire plays a chambermaid empowered by playing chess.

Chess as a Slow Dance of Seduction

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Published: March 31, 2011

Caroline Bottaro’s tangy comic bonbon, “Queen to Play,” plucks the game of chess out of the metaphorical realm of spy thrillers and reimagines it as a fable about relationships and upward mobility. Adapted from Bertina Henrichs’s novel “The Chess Player,” this slight but captivating movie (Ms. Bottaro’s directorial debut) compares the strategies of chess to the erotic maneuvers in a flirtatious pas de deux that may be more satisfying than actual sex. At the same time, a woman’s winning the game symbolizes female empowerment in a man’s world and ascent from working-class drudgery to the bourgeoisie.

Hélène (Sandrine Bonnaire), the movie’s sly, middle-aged Cinderella, is an attractive chambermaid at a luxury hotel in Corsica. While going about her chores, she observes a chess game being played by a sexy American couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) on the balcony of their suite. Stealthy moves accompanied by insinuating eye contact culminate with the woman’s defeating the man and flashing Hélène a smile of conspiratorial glee.

Hélène takes the hint, and at a birthday party for her husband, a handsome dockworker named Ange (Francis Renaud), she presents him with an electronic chess set in the hopes of reigniting the spark in their marriage. Ange is mystified and vaguely annoyed by the gift. When he expresses no interest in learning the game, Hélène begins teaching herself to play and quickly becomes obsessed.

“Queen to Play” is a lighthearted, grown-up fairy tale in which chess consumes Hélène’s imagination and transforms her life. As she mops a black-and-white checkered floor, it becomes a surreal dreamscape. At a restaurant she makes chess pieces out of crumbled bread and pushes them around the squares of the red-and-white tablecloth.

The intimate looks exchanged by the characters as they compete for advantage in a game in which the queen is the most powerful piece tell us as much about them as anything they say. Sometimes chess even suggests a mental striptease in which the players shed their defenses as they exchange glances and dare each other to go forward. At other times it conjures a war between the sexes, with Hélène the feminist upstart challenging male dominance.

Avid to learn more, she discovers a chess set in the house of Dr. Kröger (Kevin Kline, in his first entirely French-speaking role), a widowed American professor for whom she works as a part-time housecleaner. She volunteers to clean his place in exchange for weekly chess lessons. A mysterious figure suffering from an unidentified lung ailment, Kröger agrees. When, after only a few lessons, she is regularly beating him, he urges her to enter a local tournament.

In small but significant ways, “Queen to Play” defies expectations. It dangles the possibility of an affair between Hélène and Kröger in games that the film likens to courtship rituals in a classic screwball comedy. But their flirtation is never physically consummated.

Hélène’s relationships with her husband and rebellious teenage daughter, Lisa (Alexandra Gentil), undergo surprising transformations. Ange, initially threatened by Hélène’s passion, which keeps her out late and distracts her from housework, is initially so suspicious that he follows her to a lesson and spies on her. But once he realizes that she has a gift, his jealousy turns to admiration, and the flame of desire is rekindled. Lisa, who is so ashamed and contemptuous of her parents for being “poor” that she refuses to invite boyfriends to the house, becomes her mother’s fervent champion.

Ms. Bonnaire’s Hélène subtly evolves from a harried, resentful domestic wearing a perpetually hurt expression into a woman who discovers her power. Mr. Kline, as the haughty, secretive professor with a kind heart under a prickly exterior gives one of his finest screen performances, executed with minute fluctuations in his body language.

In their most delicious scene Hélène and Kröger play an imaginary game of chess away from the board. Gazing into each other’s eyes, they engage in what has the ring of intellectual pillow talk. Although the conversation is entirely chaste, in the intensity with which they study each other’s signals, they might as well be newlyweds.

QUEEN TO PLAY

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Caroline Bottaro; written by Ms. Bottaro and Caroline Maly, based on the novel “The Chess Player,” by Bertina Henrichs; director of photography, Jean-Claude Larrieu; edited by Tina Baz Le Gal; music by Nicola Piovani; set design by Emmanuel de Chauvigny; costumes by Dorothée Guiraud; produced by Dominique Besneard and Michel Feller; released by Zeitgeist Films. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Sandrine Bonnaire (Hélène), Kevin Kline (Dr. Kröger), Francis Renaud (Ange), Jennifer Beals (the American Woman), Dominic Gould (the American Man), Valérie Lagrange (Maria) and Alexandra Gentil (Lisa).

A version of this review appeared in print on April 1, 2011, on page C8 of the New York edition..

Source: http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/movies/kevin-kline-in-caroline-bottaros-queen-to-play-review.html

Time is tight – enjoy!

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A game -play-at chesse

Images: Wikipedia [click on image for a larger view]

Title page of the first printed edition. It depicts the Fat Bishop saying “Keep your distance”, and the Black Knight tempting him with “A letter from his holiness”. The characters’ faces are caricatures of de Dominis and Gondomar.
Written by:  Thomas Middleton
Date premiered : August, 1624
Place premiered:  Globe Theatre, London
Original language:  English
Subject:  Anglo-Spanish relations, Protestantism and Catholicism
Genre:  Satire, allegory
Setting:  A chessboard
Chess is a game where there is a war taking place. [luckily without violence and blood] The chessboard is a very popular setting to depict situations or to learn lessons – from the past as well as current. Chess is also popular in movies. On THIS LINK I’ve posted an entry about chess and the movies.
I was searching for something completely different – than chess – when I came across this play – about chess – and really enjoyed reading about it. I’ve copied from the link, but you can read on the Wikipedia link more about the Acts, the Scenes and the characters in this play. Interesting:

The play was stopped after nine performances (August 6–16, Sundays omitted), but not before it had become “the greatest box-office hit of early modern London.

Please click HERE  to read more about the play on Wikipedia.

King James I of England, model for the White King

King Philip IV of Spain, model for the Black King

Count Duke of Olivares, model for the Black Duke [Rook]

The play

The drama seems to be about a chess match, and even contains a genuine chess opening: the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Instead of personal names, the characters are known as the White Knight, the Black King, etc. However, audiences immediately recognized the play as an allegory for the stormy relationship between Spain (the black pieces) and Great Britain (the white pieces). King James I of England is the White King; King Philip IV of Spain is the Black King. In particular, the play dramatizes the struggle of negotiations over the proposed marriage of the then Prince Charles with the Spanish princess, the Infanta Maria. It focuses on the journey by Prince Charles (the “White Knight”) and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (the “White Duke”, or rook) to Madrid in 1623.

Among the secondary targets of the satire was the former Archbishop of Split, Marco Antonio de Dominis, who was caricatured as the Fat Bishop (played by William Rowley). De Dominis was a famous turncoat of his day: he had left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church—and then returned to Rome again. The traitorous White King’s Pawn is a composite of several figures, including Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, a former Lord Treasurer who was impeached before the House of Lords in April 1624.

The former Spanish ambassador to London, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, was blatantly satirized and caricatured in the play as the Machiavellian Black Knight. (The King’s Men went so far as to buy discarded items of Gondomar’s wardrobe for the role.) His successor recognized the satire and complained to King James. His description of the crowd’s reaction to the play yields a vivid picture of the scene:

There was such merriment, hubbub and applause that even if I had been many leagues

away it would not have been possible for me not to have taken notice of it.

The play was stopped after nine performances (August 6–16, Sundays omitted), but not before it had become “the greatest box-office hit of early modern London”. The Privy Council opened a prosecution against the actors and the author of the play on Aug. 18 (it was then illegal to portray any modern Christian king on the stage). The Globe Theatre was shut down by the prosecution, though Middleton was able to acquit himself by showing that the play had been passed by the Master of the Revels, Sir Henry Herbert. Nevertheless, further performance of the play was forbidden and Middleton and the actors were reprimanded and fined. Middleton never wrote another play.

An obvious question arises: if the play was clearly offensive, why did the Master of the Revels license it on July 12 of that summer? Herbert may have been acting in collusion with the “war party” of the day, which included figures as prominent as Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham; they were eager for a war with Spain and happy to see public ire roused against the Spanish. If this is true, Middleton and the King’s Men were themselves pawns in a geopolitical game of chess.

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Anand vs Kramnik 2008

 

Anand is Officially the winner of the WCC 2008!

 

Images: Official site

Kramnik and Anand draw colours…

Annotated Videos of Anand and Kramnik ‘s games can be played through on this link, it is on my blog (the “movies” page) and the link will open in a new window. You can also click on that page (top of my blog)

Game 1…Kramnik and Anand…

Image: Official site…Anand vs Kramnik

The World Chess Championships 2008 has started! Anand vs Kramnik! The two Chess Engines of the World!

1. Please click HERE to play through their 2008 World Chess Championships games on chessgames. The link will open in a new window.
2. Please click HERE if you want to read more about the two players, play through more games or if you want some games in algebraic notation. The link will open in a new window.

3. Please click HERE if you want to play through previous games of Anand and Kramnik on the Official site. The link will open in a new window.

4. On The Official site you can follow the games LIVE. The link will open in a new window. If you click on the top image/logo in this post, it will take you to the Official site’s homepage. The link will open in a new window.
5. If you click HERE you can view a list of games played by Anand/Kramik..it’s a Wiki-link and it will open in a new window. Find similar links in the second link of this post where you can also find some games in algebraic notation.

Games start 2pm for UK local time, 9 am Eastern USA time

Standings: After Game 9
Results of the games between Anand and Kramnik
Game 1 Kramnik vs Anand…1/2

Game 2 Anand vs Kramnik…1/2

Game 3 Kramnik vs Anand…0-1

Game 4 Anand vs Kramnik…1/2

Game 5 Kramnik vs Anand…0-1

Game 6 Anand vs Kramnik…1-0

Game 7 Anand vs Kramnik… 1/2

Game 8 Kramnik vs Anand … 1/2

Game 9 Anand vs Kramnik … 1/2

Game 10 Kramnik vs Anand..1-0

Game 11 Anand vs Kramnik.. 1/2

Kramnik vs Anand…game 1…opening

Kramnik vs Anand…game 1 move 11

Kramnik vs Anand…game 1 move 21

Kramnik vs Anand…game 1 end position

Game 1 move list

GAME/Round 2…Anand vs Kramnik….

Game 2 15th October 2008…move 11

Anand vs Kramnik ….Game 2 move 17

Anand vs Kramnik game 2 move 24

Anand vs Kramnik game 2 Final position…1/2

Kramnik vs Anand..Game 3 move 7

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 move 14

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 move 20

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 move 25

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 move 30

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 move 33

Kramnik vs Anand…Game 3 end position 0-1

Game 3 move list

Anand vs Kramnik…Game 4 move 7

Anand vs Kramnik…Game 4 move 12

Anand vs Kramnik… Game 4 move 19

Anand vs Kramnik…Game 4 move 24

Anand vs Kramnik…Game 4 endposition

Game 4 move list

Kramnik vs Anand…game 5 move 7

Kramnik vs Anand…game 5 move 14

Kramnik vs Anand…game 5 move 21

Kramnik vs Anand…game 5 end position

Game 5 move list

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 7

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 14

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 20

 

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 27

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 34

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 move 39

Anand vs Kramnik game 6 final position

Game 6 move list

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 move 7

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 move 13

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 move 19

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 move 25
 

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 move 31

Anand vs Kramnik Game 7 end position

 
Game 7 move list

Kramnik vs Anand game 8 move 7

Kramnik vs Anand Game 8 move 14

Kramnik vs Anand Game 8 move 21

Kramnik vs Anand Game 8 move 28

Kramnik vs Anand Game 8 move 36

Kramnik vs Anand Game 8 final position

Game 8 move list

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 7

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 14

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 19

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 27

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 32

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 move 41

Anand vs Kramnik Game 9 end position

Game 9 move list

Kramnik vs Anand Game 10 move 7

Kramnik vs Anand Game 10 move 18

Kramnik vs Anand Game 10 move 23

Kramnik vs Anand Game 10 Final position

 
Game 10 move list

Anand vs Kramnik Game 11 move 7

Anand vs Kramnik Game 11 move 13

Anand vs Kramnik Game 11 end position

Anand vs Kramnik Game 11 move list

On this link of Chessgames you can play through Kramnik and Anand’s games where they played one another before. On link 1 in this post you can play through the current games of the championships in Bonn.  A new window will open when you click on the link!

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Chess Grandmasters play football!

Chess players in Baku had a free day  yesterday! See how they spent their day…playing football…watch  the second movie to see the players in action!

 

Images: Fide.com

Sergey Karjakin, from Ukraine, (Ukrainian: Сергій Карякін; born January 12, 1990 in Simferopol) is a top chess player. At the age of twelve years and seven months he became the youngest grandmaster in history. On the FIDE ranking list of April 2008, he has a rating of 2732, making him number 14 in the world, number 2 in the category of boys up to 20 years old and number 2 in the  Ukraine. On this first movie you can see the interview held with him. Both movies can be watched on the Fide.com site too.

 

 

Round 6 will be played today. You can see the pairings on this image.

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Why do the movies love chess?

 I think chess is a game most people can play. If you can’t play it, it’s very easy to learn the basics. Well, the basics are the pieces, names and how they move. Also, make sure you know whenever you play chess, that there’s always a white square on your right hand side! Otherwise, your board is set up wrongly! And, the white pieces go on the rows marked 1 and 2, black on 7 and 8. In some movies, you will find the board set up wrongly and even the Queen not on the colour she should be! White Queen goes to the white square …. so the Queen goes to “her” colour. I’ve found an interesting article why they – directors – like chess in the movies! So, have you got any plans to be an actor? Then…learn to play chess…or at least know the basics…. lol!
Click HERE to play through the game from the movie: From Russia with love!

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

The late Ingmar Bergman’s film the Seventh Seal helped cement his reputation as a cerebral director, and might explain why chess is such an enduring theme for film makers.

In the Seventh Seal a Swedish knight returns from the crusades to find his home country ravaged by tragedy and is soon locked in a game of chess with death.

Without giving much away, it’s a fairly intense game.

Bergman’s arthouse favourite is perhaps the most notorious example of chess on celluloid, but there are hundreds and hundreds of others. From the brainiest to the schlockiest, one of the movie world’s favourite devices is chess.

And among the chess-playing fraternity there’s a whole subculture of “chess in the movies” discussion, with a number of dedicated websites, and Bob Basalla’s book Chess in the Movies, providing exhaustive lists stretching up to 2,000 titles.

Perhaps the second best known chess scene is in the Thomas Crown Affair, where Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway enjoy a romantically-charged game.

Satyajit Ray’s the Chess Players is another arthouse classic, while 2000’s Luzhin Defence had a grandmaster as its central character.

But for many chess aficionados, the best example of the game has to be in the second James Bond film, From Russia With Love, where the Spectre agent Kronsteen ruthlessly beats the Canadian master McAdams
Sometimes chess is in a movie because a star or director is a player. Humphrey Bogart was reputed to be at the top end of amateur players, and suggested a chess scene for Casablanca. And Stanley Kubrick was so taken with chess that it features in The Killing, Lolita and 2001 and alluded to the game in Paths of Glory.

“The best scenes are where there is some tension between the protagonists. Humphrey Bogart has a special place in my affections because he did love chess. The board was definitely the right way round in Casablanca,” Pein adds.

The chess authorities have tried to capitalise on the movies to recruit new players, such as when the game was heavily featured in a Harry Potter movie.

And the fans like most the movies – such as From Russia With Love – that at least attempt to use a real game. Blade Runner features a game based on Anderssen against Kieseritzky in London in 1851, known to some as the Immortal Game, and 1925’s Chess Fever which featured Cuban world champion Jose Raul Capablanca playing a champion.

Read more HERE about chess in movies.

Click HERE to see how the pieces move and if you don’t know these little funny men on the pic here, you can click
HERE to read about the Lewis Chessmen!

Another fantastic link HERE about Chess in movies.

If you click HERE you can see a list of more than 1700 movies where a chess scene can be found!

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Win a chess game in 2 moves!

Nigel Short, British GM won this game due to the Fide-rule that chess players should shake hands at the start of a game. He offered his hand twice to his opponent. Read the press report here on Corus and you can also listen to Nigel Short in the Youtube video.

January 20 2008 – Corus Chess Press

At the start of round 8 of the Corus Chess Tournament, Ivan Cheparinov, top seed in Grandmaster Group B, lost his game against Nigel Short for refusing to shake the Brit’s hand. According to an article on the FIDE website:

“Any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a FIDE tournament or during a FIDE match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.”

Chief Arbiter Thomas van Beekum was a witness when Cheparinov refused Short’s offer to shake hands twice and the Bulgarian’s game was declared a loss as a result.

The Tournament Organization has received an official protest by Mr. Ivan Cheparinov regarding his loss against Mr. Nigel Short. The matter will be put forward to the Appeals Committee

Click HERE to say hi to  Nigel Short on Face Book.

On this video you can see what happened.

 

Two moves checkmate is: 1.f4 e6 2.g4 Qh4#

Four move checkmate….1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qh5 Nc6 4.Qxf7#

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Bobby Fischer… was and is!

Rest in Peace Bobby Fischer —b. 1943 – d. 2008
You can read my Bobby Fischer-poem
HERE…
On THIS LINK
you can read an article about him that was published in the UK Times.

I was age 11, when I got my first chess set and chess book. It was a book written by Cor Nortje in Afrikaans…”Skaak!” In the back of the book, there are the games of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. I used to play through those games to “teach” myself a bit more of the game. Nobody else in the family played chess! I got to like Bobby F and he was always – and will always be! – my favourite chess player! It’s very sad to know that he’s passed away, and as somebody said on the chess site… at the age of 64! A “good” number, as there are 64 squares on the board!! Bobby had an IQ of 187! A very gifted and talented player, for sure… What happened to him was really sad and even more sad that the American government “chased” him because of violating sanctions… that means that you don’t have the freedom to do what you love and what you are brilliant at! Sad….that is what politicians are good at…ruining other people’s lives! ..and sometimes with their “fantastic” ideas… even divide nations all over the world!

Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness.

Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.

This chess book is written in Afrikaans and was my first chess book at the age of 11. It has all the games of Spasski and Fischer.

Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (born March 9, 1943), won the World Chess Championship on September 1, 1972 and lost the title when he failed to defend it on April 3, 1975. He is considered to be one of the most gifted chess players of all time and, despite his prolonged absence from competitive play, is still among the best known of all chess players.
 
“Chess is war over the board.
The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” – Bobby Fischer

“I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it.” – Bobby Fischer.

He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments.Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, once accused “the Jew-controlled U.S. government” of ruining his life.

He fell into obscurity before resurfacing to win a 1992 exhibition rematch against Spassky on the Yugoslav resort island of Sveti Stefan in violation of sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.

A fierce critic of his homeland, Fischer became wanted in the United States for violating the sanctions.

Read here…about Bobby’s death Read on THIS LINK about his first rated tournament.

NIGEL SHORT about Fischer:

“The United States is evil. There’s this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers,” Fischer said.

Source: Click here  for the news.
Fischer told reporters that year that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.

He renounced his American citizenship and moved to Iceland in 2005.
 Japanese Release Bobby Fischer
Ex-Chess Champ Heads to Iceland

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A14

NAGOYA, Japan, March 24 — Bobby Fischer, the chess legend who feared deportation to face charges in the United States, was freed Thursday by Japanese authorities after eight months in prison, the Justice Ministry said. He left immediately for the airport to fly to Iceland.

The deal to free Fischer came after Iceland — a chess-loving nation that hosted his historic Cold War-era victory over the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972 — granted Fischer citizenship this week in a move to help him avoid trial in the United States. Fischer, 62, who grew up in New York, has dodged a U.S. arrest warrant since playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992 in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Read the rest of the article HERE …

Bobby as a 15 year old teenager….and America’s champ!

Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America’s first world chess championship in more than a century.But his reputation as a genius of chess soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies.A few years after the Spassky match, he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it.

Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.

Fischer’s first Filipino friend: He was very special

By Artemio T. Engracia Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:10:00 01/20/2008

MANILA, Philippines–FLORENCIO CAMPOMANES, the country’s chess pioneer and former president of the International Chess Federation (Fide), was Bobby Fischer’s original Filipino friend.

They met in New York in the mid-1950s when Fischer was emerging as a chess phenom barely into his teens and Campomanes was shuttling between New York and Washington DC while working for the State Department
Read the complete article here.

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Teach your kids chess and they know how to work with money!

Source : http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/teaching-kids-about-money-51386.aspx

Please click HERE to read about the movie: Knights of the South Bronx. Links will open in a new window.

Teaching Kids About Money: 10 Tips
Ways for parents to teach their children about money

Published on: Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Written by: Trista Winnie

Parents have been giving financial advice to their children for ages. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” Polonius told his son Laertes in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As with good hygiene and good manners, most parents strive to teach their children lessons on how to be good at handling money.“If you can teach your child the difference between needs and wants, how to budget and how to save, your child will know more than many adults,” according to Scott Reeves of Forbes. “But if you get it wrong, your child is likely to join the millions of Americans who rack up huge credit card debt and get stung each month by stiff interest payments.”
In other words, no pressure.The lives of children who understand money, its value and how to handle it will be far easier than those of children who don’t.
Here are 10 tips for teaching your kids about money, focusing on saving and investing money, so they will grow up and use it responsibly.

– on the link  at the bottom of the page, where the article can be found…point 3 says…

3) Teach them critical thinking

While not directly a lesson in money, kids who learn how to think critically will make better decisions when it comes to money because they will be able to consider the short, medium and long term effects of their decisions, as well as plan for contingencies.

One great way to teach them how to plan, strategize and think critically is to teach them chess. Chess is a game in which cause and effect, concrete rules, analysis and planning for different scenarios are all crucial. Chess can also help kids hone their ability to recognize when to take risks and when to play it safe, which is a critical investment skill.

A real life example of this can be found in the story of David MacEnulty, an English teacher who taught a group of inner-city, low-income students in the South Bronx how to play chess. These students went on to compete and win in chess competitions and their critical thinking skills put them on the path to success. The story was documented in the 2005 movie, Knights of the South Bronx

Knights of the South Bronx

The most captivating, entertaining chess movie since Searching for Bobby Fischer! You’ll be thrilled. It’s inspirational.A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.Richard’s entire class is lifted out of nothingness and boredom to fight for life, success, and the thrill of achievement! He helps his entire class discover chess one day, much to the dismay of school authorities. Richard’s mind is torn as even his wife disapproves when he turns down a lucrative job offer to stay with low-paying job… “his kids” and his class. But Richard cannot be swayed from helping the kids find new hope in life. When Richard’s class is reaching new levels of achievement in their studies the tide is turned, his wife comes to his side, and his Knights of the South Bronx battle their way to winning championships and battling all signs of defeat… often from within their own minds and ranks – their classmates. But they encourage one another and overcome, inspired by the game of chess.

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Alexandra Kosteniuk – Chess Grandmaster

Alexandra

News Article about Alexandra: 11th January 2009…the link will open in a new window.

http://www.miamiherald.com/277/story/847451.html

Winner of the World Women Chess Championship 2008

On this link- on my blog – you can follow her games of round 5 and round 6…against Yifan of China and see more pics of her too. https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/alexandra-kosteniuk-winner-of-nalchik/
To be honest, I haven’t known of the existence of Alexandra before, I think there are so many Chess Grandmasters that we don’t know of, but I want to blog her, as she is a female player! and I think more should be done to attract girls to play chess. Too many girls are still thinking chess is a boy’s game. Why do you think that is? If you go to my chess links, you will find a link saying… “Tube Chess”…follow that link for some good movies about her playing chess, but also about other chess players!

Alexandra Kosteniuk is the 10th woman in the world to have ever achieved the Grandmaster (men) title. She’s rated  sixth woman in the world, and #1 woman in Russia. She has a FIDE  ELO of 2515.
Alexandra had a great success at the annual New Year Blitz tournament organized by the Deputy Economy Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in Moscow. After qualifying in the semifinals, she won convincingly the final with 8 points out of 9 ahead of GM Najer –2635–7, GM Dlugy –2518– 6.5, GM Alekseev –2716– 6, GM Bareev –2653– 4.5, GM Vasiukov –2492– 4, etc.

Click on the images for a larger view.

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World Youth Chess Championship 2007—Turkey

17 November 2007!

Official website ….

Click HERE for the Fide-website….where you can read more about….

“Chess is most likely to be introduced into Russian schools curriculum
The Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov thinks that chess is most likely to be introduced into Russian schools curriculum. `In Kalmykia, schools have chess in their programmes for more than 10 years and the results in other school subjects have improved. Kalmyk pupils win not only Russian championships but also world ones in other sports,` Mr. Gryzlov said at the opening ceremony of the Russian Sport Forum. In Mr. Gryzlov`s opinion chess develops not only pupils` logical thinking but their striving for victory which is very important for the Russian people.”

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Today, I said the following to Basil…(he’s on the course with me)..that chess should be a game in all schools, because of the following…

1. In Chess, you have to think at least about 3-4 moves ahead….in real life….you have to think ahead! plan for the future…etc.

2. In Chess, you have to be focused on your moves, you can’t let your mind drifting….then you lose! (if you snooze…you lose!)….in real life, if you are not focused…you lose!

3. In Chess, you have to prioritise…you may have about 3-4 very good moves to make….so, you have to decide which one is the best move for that particular moment…cause and effect…..in real life, you have to prioritise your life too! You have to decide what is important for that particular moment…cause and effect…again…

4. In Chess, you have patterns, particular moves occur and you know what to do if it occurs….in real life, something happens and you had experienced it before, so you know how to handle it, you act like you used to do in that particular situation……and….maths is about patterns! so, solve a pattern in chess, considered it solved in maths! ….patterns are easily identified in other situations in real life….or in other subjects! ….or solve a problem in chess…you can solve it in maths! ….so what do I actually try to tell you….? Chess is a fantastic sport to achieve higher levels in Maths…if you are a student! …..but don’t think just a couple of games will do the “job”…you have to commit yourself!

5. In Chess, you move different directions, that helps in real life (for children) to sort out directions…i.e. left/right….so if they have difficulties with reversing letters, it may help them to solve the problem! Children with spatial problems? Let them play chess! …visual orientation-problems…? Chess is the answer…just think about that tricky move of the knight!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So….people still thinking “Chess….agh! what a boring game…” think twice! and if you want to challenge me and want me to tell you more….about what FUN chess is…post me a message and I will keep you busy for about an hour or more!! I had Basil’s jaws dropped today…so I might get yours dropped too! LOL!

Have you seen THIS movie?

Knights of the South Bronx

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http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Flying Pickets – Only You

Boer-in-Ballingskap het my op die skaakwebsite….gese van die liedjie….en hy is een van my gunstelinge…ek moes hom net gou blog! ………..ja ons twee speel nou deesdae gereeld skaak…en hy het my vandag gewen! -ek het hom die ander gewen…maar ek dink hy steek bietjie weg…hy gaan seker nou sy ware kleure begin toon!!! Hy het selfs iemand van Finland gewen…dit wys jou nou….hy het net gemaak of hy lanklaas gespeel het!!

And this one!?

And…what about this video!

Kalidasa:
Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

I’d read a speech of a Director General of the Department of Internal Affairs in SA one day…and this was part of his speech!

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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