BEGINNER’S CORNER

Force checkmate. Hint:

Hardly a bored game

“Sex,” as I recall, is a fourletter word although it only has three letters.

On the other hand it may be considered to have five, if we notice that the word “chess” is an anagram for “sechs” or “sex.” Voila! The magic of keyboard prestidigitation.

Despite its growing popularity, chess is not yet America’s favorite pastime. Our happy three-letter obsession, thank god, comes much closer to filling the bill.

But if you can combine the two qualities of sex and chess in one person ...

That’s what Cosmopolitan magazine seems to be doing by designating Magnus Carlsen as one of the 25 sexiest men of 2013. And it is not by default or an afterthought created in order to fill a couple of empty spaces at the bottom of a ranking list.

Not at all. Magnus is ranked a magnificent fifth.

My, how times have changed. Intellectual has become cool. Perhaps its the fortunes of billions being created by former Harvard students and their kind that is causing this turning of heads.

Cosmopolitan obviously is not cool about its claims.

Posted next to a picture of the sullen, pugnacious but well-dressed chess genius is the following exhortation:

“Check this hottie out! Chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen might just have converted us to the board game.”

Nor cool are a couple of bloggers who write in one instance: “Agreed.” Or in another “Oh Lordy, yes!”

The postings are, nevertheless, relatively restrained. No one is describing or inquiring about Magnificent Magnus’s favorite mating positions.

Below is a win by Meelis Kanep against Marian Kantorik from the Tradewise Gibraltar Open tournament in Caleta, England.

Solution: 1. g5ch! Kxh5 2. Nf4 mate!