Don't Park Your Car Below Giant Chess Sets, And Other News
It's a good thing the World Chess Hall of Fame keeps its giant chess set on the ground floor. Sure, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and IM Danny Rensch still do their best to cause maximum carnage, but it's usually only those two that end up sweaty and bruised.
Now take those same oversized pieces and place them atop an apartment complex. What do you get? A type of Newtonian revelry that we will dub the "Gravity Gambit."
That story and much more is in this next edition of In Other News.
Giant Chess Pieces Launched From Roof
Most of the time, the oversized chess sets we see in parks and on sidewalks are subject to lateral moves only, just like their smaller brethren. Place these same pieces on the top of a building for amateurs to play with, and you might just get some mayhem.
Someone's not getting his security deposit back. Screenshot: NBC's Washington, D.C. affiliate.
Watch this video and see how several cars' windshields were busted worse than your pet opening. If anyone has a PGN to the game that preceded the incident, please paste it in the comments!
Croatia Vs. Russia At World Cup -- What's Kasparov's Take?
GM Garry Kasparov hasn't been back to Russia in several years, although at least as of 2014, he refused to renounce his Russian citizenship. That same year, he obtained Croatian citizenship while running for president of FIDE.
So when Croatia played Russia at the World Cup earlier this month, the man who holds both passports saw some geopolitical overtones.
Bravo Hrvatska! 🇭🇷 I only wish the free world would show the same resilience fighting Putin's advances in the geopolitical field as the Croatians demonstrated on the football field!
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 7, 2018
For the record, Russia equalized in the final minutes, just like Kasparov against Karpov in 1987. But unlike the chess world championship rules in the 80s, in football there's a tiebreaker, and Croatia won on penalty kicks.
Sticking with Russia for another story, Andrey Filatov, the uber-rich philanthropist, art dealer, and often captain of the Russian Olympiad team, has founded a winery. An early wine tasting took place during the Berlin Candidates'.
In collaboration with his Russian art foundation, Art Russe, a selection of Grand Cru from Château La Grâce Dieu Prieurs is now for sale.
The collection. "And We Are Not Afraid" sounds like a good chess mantra. Photo: Art Russe.
Previously, he hosted a chess and wine battle. Of course, if mixing chess and wine is your thing, you might want to check out this annual event in France.
William Lombardy's Memorabilia For Sale
If wine collections are not to your liking, how about adding to your chess collection? According to this post on Reddit, some of GM William Lombardy's personal effects are up for sale. Please note that Chess.com cannot verify the posting, but some of the pictures linked to are definitely Bill.
A very young William Lombardy. Photo: likely Eva Veronika Klein (no relation).
Lombardy, a former world junior champion and longtime second of Bobby Fischer, died last year while visiting a friend in California.
USA Wins World Senior Championships
Using an impressive lineup of five grandmasters, among which no less than nine U.S. Championship titles have been won, the United States won the 50+ division of the World Senior Team Championship in Dresden, Germany. Held from July 7-15, the event's winning team members were GMs Alex Shabalov, Joel Benjamin, Jaan Ehlvest, Alex Yermolinsky, and Sergey Kudrin. They bested an England team led by GM Jon Speelman and four other GMs.
Every American finished with a plus score, led by top board Shabalov who went 7.5/8.
GM Alex Shabalov in his finery just before being inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2015. | Photo: Mike Klein, Chess.com.
That means that the U.S. now holds team golds in both the Olympiad and World Senior Teams. Like in both events, the road to gold went through Canada. Here's Shabalov doing what he's done his whole career—attack!
If American seniors need even more chances to win titles, then next month will be the inaugural National Senior Tournament of Champions, where each state can select one representative to attend.
Also in Germany, in the 65+ division, Russia won by a comfortable margin, led by GM Evgeny Sveshnikov.
Kentucky Governor In Hot Seat After Remarks About Chess
Not all is great with chess in the U.S. at the moment. What should have been a feel-good story about middle-school kids that play chess instead turned into a political firestorm when Governor Matt Bevin said he wasn't expecting that sort of thing in the particular part of Louisville he was visiting.
Bevin doubtless had no idea of the numerous stories of inner-city kids succeeding in chess (although we can suggest next on his Netflix account should be "Knights of the South Bronx," "Queen of Katwe," "Life of a King,"or "Endgame" -- all basically that same theme!).
He also lauded the kids and staff in the short video, so you can be the judge of whether his comments were insensitive or not:
Enjoyed meeting the members of the West Louisville Chess Club at Nativity Academy at St. Boniface...Incredible kids with incredible minds. #WeAreKY pic.twitter.com/ePnrmkmR0g
— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) July 10, 2018
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
