Chess Odds and Ends

In this case, mostly "odds." In this blog, I mostly spend my time talking about tournament results, or new issues that affect chess on a global or national scale, which means a lot of stuff slips through the cracks. Many of these are important stories or interesting events that I just don't get a chance to write about.

Then there are the weird chess stories I see from time to time: the ones that don't justify a whole post, but which are too good to ignore. I've seen enough in the past few days to compile a nice little list of stories that have very little to do with playing chess, FIDE politics, or anything else relevant to the game...but which you might find interesting. Enjoy!

• Did you miss the announcement of a World Championship match this December in Las Vegas? No, it's not the one you're thinking of; this epic clash was to be between Stan Vaughan and Varuzhan Akobian. Don't get too excited, though: it's already been canceled.
• Current French Champion Vladislav Tkachiev was caught up in an embarrassing situation at the 4th Kolkata Grandmaster Open, which is currently ongoing. Tkachiev arrived for his third round game drunk, then proceeded to fall asleep and was unable to finish the game. ChessBase has a report that includes an eyewitness account and an letter from a friend of Tkachiev's to the tournament organizers.
• The developers of Chess Wars, a new chess app for the iPhone, waited a long time for their product to become available in Apple's App Store. After a six week wait, they finally found out why their app hadn't been approved: apparently, the chat bubbles in their program were too similar to those designed by Apple themselves; those shiny little bubbles are trademarked.
• An etching that supposedly shows a 1909 chess game between Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is being auctioned along with the chess set used in the game. Anyone would rightfully be skeptical of such an etching being authentic, but some of the facts seem to be at least plausible: the etching is being sold by the great-great grandson of a housekeeper to a prominent Jewish family in Vienna, and the etching was reportedly made by Emma Lowenstramm, Hitler's art teacher in his youth -- making it possible that it is the 20-year-old Hitler depicted. However, the opponent has received much more skepticism from experts; although he was in exile, Lenin was not known to be in Vienna at the time, and unlike the man in the etching, had been bald for 15 years prior.

If you're looking for some actual chess to watch, this week, my recommendation is to check out the Bilbao Masters, which features four of the world's top players: Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Sergei Karjakin and Alexei Shirov.