NICK BARNETT CHESS
IF THERE WAS ever any doubt that GM Magnus Carlsen is the best online chess player, then winning the Finals of the Meltwater Chess Championship with two matches to spare, the title of Tour Champion as well as $100,000, should put paid to that.
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TWO CONTROVERSIES are buzzing around the Chess ether:
Ө Qa] ^blmn bm BF@A Xhhioh[bh` X mjihmilmabj ^il women’s chess with Establishment Labs, a company marketing a breast implant product line called as JinbpXԈҶ BF@A [bn]\ nabm mjihmilmabj Xm ]rn]h\bh` through 2022, a year they have designated as “The Year of Women in Chess.” This sponsorship has elicited important discussions around sponsorships, financial support for female players, power dynamics, body image, and other delicate topics.
The announcement stressed Motiva’s role in reconstructive surgery and breast cancer, but the Motiva website focuses on aesthetics and surgery to optimize aesthetics, using “Breast Augmentation” and “Safe Breasts Enlargement” as their website’s HTML title to optimize their placement in searches for these operations. The majority of implants made by Motiva are sold for those purposes.
Many players have come out against the optics and Chess.com stated that although they would cover the World Women’s Team Championship and the upcoming Women’s World Chess Championship and other major women’s chess events they will not be promoting Motiva as a sponsor.
Sexism in chess is a problem that befuddles even na] mgXln]mn j]ije] Xh\ bn bm hin a]ej]\ Zs BF@A hin learning from the controversy when Nigel Short fell into a gendered thinking trap in 2015 (See the article in lifestyle.livemint.com: search for Nigel Short ), where he rambled on about why women did not do as well as men in chess.
The Lifestyle article reminds people that “a combination of systemic and societal factors tend to hold women back from realizing their true potential. Lack of role models, lack of financial security, male gatekeepers in chess bodies and pay gap” are but some of them.
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So and GM Hikaru Nakamura, who appeared to collude in four quick rapidplay draws during Meltwater. The arrangement helped Nakamura to play in Chess.com’s Titled Tuesday whose playing hours overlapped with Meltwater. It drew attention to the friction between Chess.com, which is linked to the Twitch streamer and five-time US champion Nakamura, and its rival Chess24, which is owned by Carlsen’s PlayMagnus Group.
Nakumura has often been called out for unethical behavior but this is not cricket!
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REMEMBER to check facebook.com/ SACHESSPLAYERS for news and tournaments in South Africa.
There is another Facebook page entitled: SA Chess players which may be interesting if you want to keep up-to-date with SA chess.
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