Inside Out: Chess Club

The world of chess blogs

In this segment on the New Britain Chess Club, Ted McHugh tells Eric Clemons that if you really want to learn about chess you should "read books on chess and play on the internet." And if you're interested in the cultural aspects of chess...there are numerous chess blogs that will both pique and satisfy your curiousity. The names alone are magnificent. According to the New York Times Chess Blog Gambit, by Dylan Leob McClain, there is a heated four-way fight over the late Bobby Fischer's estate, including the question---now being put before an Icelandic court---of whether Fischer's body should be exumed in order to take a DNA sample. Furthermore, the World Chess Federation recently updated its drug testing policy, in an effort to increase the game's legitimacy. It seems, however, that the biggest threat to chess is illegal computer-usage. An offense for which there is no formal penalty. 

As this Inside Out segment and the aforementioned chess gossip shows, chess may not be so stuffy after all. It's a 1,500 year old international phenomenon that is growing ever more accessible, and more interesting, with the integration of the internet into the game and its culture. There's even a tool on the Gambit blog that allows viewers to replay tournament games. If you're a newcomer, there are some classic games played by Vasily Smyslov, a chess giant who passed away last month.  Another World Champion Vladimir Kramnik said (via Gambit),  "He is truth in chess! I would recommend a study of Smyslov’s games to children who want to know how to play chess because he plays the game how it should be played: his style is the closest to some sort of ‘virtual truth’ in chess. He always tried to make the strongest move in each position." And thanks to the internet, everyone can.