USA's Top Daily Chess News Blog, Informative, Fun, and Positive
hosted by Chess Queen™ & 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Life, Chess, and the Emotion of it All - Neat Chess Video
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Isn't a life well lived defined - at least partly - by those intense chess games played? Those final motifs, a stunning tactic, a blunder, and more. What else could define life better. We found this nice video of two senior citizens playing chess. No details though. All the same, must watch if you want to share the emotion of chess. Live life with chess... what else is there to it?
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hello everyone,
We continue our series of advertisement videos from around the world that have used a chess motif. Here is a nice one sent to us by www.chessblog.com reader swakilki. If you've got a special chess video, don't forget to send it to us.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Continuing our series of chess videos from around the world with chess featuring in mainstream media, here's one to keep you in high chess spirits. Thanks to Olga Kovalavskaya for sending us this video. You can send your favourite video with chess motif too. Enjoy.
Top chess video from first Fide chess world cup in 1982 - Seirawan versus Karpov
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Time to sit back and enjoy this super chess video. Uploaded by Sirb0b1. It's Yasser Seirawan (USA) - Anatoly Karpov (RUS) in the first Fide World Chess Cup, 1982!
Fun video: Boy Scouts of America - Chess Merit Badge Launch
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011 Hello everyone,
Remember reading about the Boy Scouts Chess Merit Badge? Well, here is a cute video of the Boy Scouts of America launching their Chess Merit Badge in Saint Louis! NASA Astronaut and Eagle Scout Greg Chamitoff was there to help with the launch!
New twist to live chess - with karate - cool video
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
We don't have the details of this chess video. Apparently they organised a live chess event with the human pieces presenting karate. Quite an interesting twist.
Cool human chess video of Gary Kasparov playing with African television personality
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Here is a nice human chess video of chess great Gary Kasparov's recent visit to Africa as part of a Moves for Life campaign. The 13th world chess champion played the game with radio and television personality Wackhead Simpson. Enjoy.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
We love to receive videos from around the world featuring chess in some way. Here is one sent to us by www.blackandwhiteindia.com chess magazine. Enjoy. It is kind of a romantic advert - so we are told - with some famous Indian television actors. The translations of the conversation in Hindi is below the video. Enjoy.
If you've got a commercial from your country featuring chess, don't forget to send it to us.
Transcript Barun moves the chess piece and says Barun: To win u have to think with your mind not your heart .... Check and Mate Sanaya : This move is wrong you've yourself said so before.
Barun : Yes, but now I am saying it is right. Everything is fair in love and war... Sanaya : You change colors just like a chameleon Barun : but you blend into all my colors... like innocent green
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Here's a trailer by VooFoo Studios and RebelPlay for Pure Chess coming soon on PS Vita and PlayStation 3 via PSN. It will feature tutorials, turn-based multiplayer for up to 8 people, and stereoscopic 3D support on PS3. We've just received the video from a Chess Blog fan and if you've got an interesting video too, share it here.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Chess and music go together. Taking the love to the next level - here is a chessboard guitar made by Tom Bingham! Very nice and creative. If you've got a video to share with us relating to chess, don't forget to send it to us.
Creative chess set by Italian glass artist Gianni Toso
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
We found this very creative chess set. Listen as curator Tina Oldknow describes Chess Set created by Italian glass artist Gianni Toso. In this whimsical yet functional chess set, a Jewish rabbi and a Roman Catholic bishop (the two kings) join a group of holy men and women holding Judeo-Christian symbols of faith, including crosses, Torahs, menorahs, and candles. Each chess piece has the appropriate costume, hairstyle, and accessory of its rank. Gianni Toso uses the metaphor of the game of chess to comment, with humor and tolerance, on the often controversial topic of religion.
Toso is best known for his carefully observed scenes, drawn from everyday life, that are made of numerous, highly detailed figurines. He is also a respected maestro who has influenced artists working in the technique of flameworking in the United States and abroad.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
Here is a nice video - checkmate smoking! We love to carry advertisement videos with a chess motif from around the world. If you've got one, do send it to us.
Melbourne Chess Club celebrates more than a century of chess joy
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
Here is your lovely chess story and video of the day.
Melbourne Chess Club's 145 years of checks and mates
IN 1866 Vegemite didn’t exist and Melbourne Town Hall hadn’t been built. But Melburnians were so keen on a checkered board game they formed a club. In Leicester St, Fitzroy, the Melbourne Chess Club is the oldest continually operating chess club in the southern hemisphere and has been open every day - including Christmas - for 145 years. With well over 100 members, some people call the Melbourne Chess Club home and have been playing there most nights for the past 30 years.
The current home is thanks to the generosity of a former member, who bequeathed his house to the club when he died in the 1980s. The club sold the property and used the proceeds to buy its Fitzroy premises - a gift that will ensure it will be around for many years to come.
Technology has changed the game’s dynamic and resulted in new rules for clubhouses. In a role similar to a football umpire, 15-year-old Melbourne High School student Jack Hughes is an arbiter at the club, responsible for ensuring the rules and laws of chess are adhered to.
There is to be no noise at all during games and if your phone goes off it is an instant forfeit. The degree of caution is warranted - these days there are iPhone chess applications that can beat any human player.
“You can go to the toilet and for all we know they could be using an engine (internet program),” Jack said. Boys and girls as young as eight can be found at the Melbourne clubhouse on Saturday mornings. The juniors play for two hours, improving their patience, strategic thinking and concentration.
Tournaments for adults usually involve a small entry fee, driving players to be even more competitive to take home the winnings. “If your opponent is ‘not trying to win through normal means’, you may claim a draw,” Jack explained.
“That is a very controversial rule. “But half the time (players are arguing about) stuff like he grunted and was distracting me while I was moving. “Chess players manage to make a huge deal out of anything really.”
Jack also happened to win a recent Victorian Youth championship in a “rapid” competition, where games last for an hour. “It (the honour) is not as impressive as it sounds,” he said. “But I did beat one player who I didn’t expect to.”
Get into the groove with this cool chess commercial
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
We love to receive videos from around the world where chess has been used in advertising. Here is one such video sent to us by @swakilki via @kosteniuk and @chessqueen on twitter. You got a nice chess video you love? Send it to us!
'Chess Fever' film ('Shakhmatnaya goryachka', 1925) by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
Sit back and watch this fun Russian chess film. Don't worry even if you don't know Russian. (Because it's a silent film ha ha!)
Script: Nikolai Shpikovsky Cast: Vladimir Fogel, Anna Zemtsova, Boris Barnet, José Raúl Capablanca
Though not his first film, Russian director/cinema theorist V. I. Pudovkin's 'Chess Fever' was the first to be released. Essentially a comedy, this 2-reel exercise in montage manages to make the game of chess seem thoroughly cinematic. Illustrating his theory that "The foundation of film art is editing", Pudovkin uses apparently unrelated images to fashion a smooth, well-integrated unified whole. He goes so far as to rabbet in shots of legendary chess master José Raúl Capablanca so that his film will have a 'star'. Other grandmasters to be seen in this movie: Ernst Grünfeld, Frederick Yates, Frank Marshall, Richard Réti, Rudolf Spielmann and Carlos Torre (all playing in the 1925 Moscow International Tournament ).
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12th Women's World Chess Champion
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