I make a habit of collecting as many of the large numbers of ads with chess imagery in them as I can. This one, which I saw today on my HSBC online banking page, deserves a double-take. Yes, they are playing chess. The board seems to be turned the right way and the position, though not clearly seen (unclear?), at least doesn't seem entirely random. I didn't even notice when I first saw it that both of them -- father and son, we assume -- are using laptops!
I rather doubt advanced chess is what the ad company had in mind. What are we supposed to think, though? "Unpressured"? A relaxing game of chess while checking stocks and playing World of Warcraft? Weird. "Let's toss in a couple of Macbooks to make it look more modern!" was probably more like it.
And the "dad" looks quite a bit like Josh Waitzkin, which reminds me of the nice interview with his childhood chess rival Jeff Sarwer at the Chess Life site. (Members only, unfortunately. Or not, say others.) He's a poker pro based in Poland these days.
Mig, have you seen this Intel ad: http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/intel_workout_ad0001.jpg
The position on the board is game 21 of Spassky-Fischer, Reykjavik. Well done, Intel!
By the way, I like the idea that there is an art film that centers around chess, particularly a woman who becomes obsessed with the game: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6048
But in English they have titled the film "Queen to Play" which is idiomatically awful. "White to Play," "Black to Play," sure, but no one ever says "Queen to Play."
The interview is great, but it is not "members only" content. Anyone can access it on the USCF front-page.
Hmm, when I tried to click the interview from another article, or maybe it was Jen's Facebook page, it told me I had to log in as a USCF member to see it.
Yah, seen the Intel ad, good one. The title "Queen to Play" is pretty horrible, even if they weren't trying for jargon. Hard to imagine what they were trying for, as in the ad. But this is again chess people wondering why non-chess people don't try to make chess people happy.
The board is there to represent long quality time spent with your family ( you are relaxed cos you have insurance ) , and the 2 computers are there to mark in which century that happens (boards alone would be almost vintage) .
Having said that , it is clearly a crappy ad whether you know the game or not.
Seems interesting enough. Chess folks assume it's all about the chess, but it's about the young woman's awakening, chess is just the vehicle. Smacks of "Educating Rita" somehow to me.
Agreed. She's a huge poker fan. Some posters assumed she did tons of research, but she's such a huge fan of both sports I doubt that she had to. I could spend the rest of my life studying chess (not just the game itself, but everything related such as players, tournaments, history, etc.), but I would never know as much as Mig, because he is a pro commentator, editor, journalist, and writer who has devoted his life to it and also knows many players well such as Kasparov, Svidler, and countless others.
"A relaxing game of chess while checking stocks and playing World of Warcraft?" is exactly what they were going for I think. It fits perfectly with the slogan "Unpressured".
I don't think you're giving the advertiser enough credit. (Ads are usually simple or stupid, but that's because they target our emotions, not our intellect. And with good reason; a rational person wouldn't buy the crap they're trying to sell us.)
In the original French and German versions, the movie title is simply "Joueuse" (Woman playing games) or "Die Schachspielerin" (Woman playing chess = "The chess playeresse"!?). The movie (set in Corsica, France) as well as the book it's based on (set in Naxos, Greece) have received mixed reviews, while all seem to agree that the main character Sandrine Bonnaire does an excellent acting job.
And this is how it was reviewed in the German newspaper "Die Welt" by a certain Matthias Heine who seems to know little if anything about (tournament) chess:
http://www.welt.de/die-welt/kultur/article5760478/Sandrine-Bonnaire-gewinnt-als-Die-Schachspielerin-neues-Leben.html
[my translation from German]
"Chess, this used to be exclusively for sozipaths with weight problems and incredibly thick glasses. They enjoyed wearing synthetic sweaters whose smell talks abou long-ago summers and winters. They were nerds before the word existed, and later they found their place on the Internet where they fit better than in the (real) world of deodorants and water taps. This apocalyptically un cool game shall now serve as a metaphor for sexual awakening of a housewife? Skepticism regarding the basic idea of the French movie ... predominates."
What are we all doing wrong? At the very least, he doesn't know about dresscodes at top chess events ... .
And while I am at it, there is another book and movie called "Zugzwang" (also in the original English version), set around the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament. It's old news from 2007, but the German translation has just won a prize from the Lasker society for "best book on the topic chess". Film trailers are @
http://www.greifswalder207.de/?p=133
http://www.greifswalder207.de/?p=134
[the webpage is in German, but the videos are in English with German subtitles]
> What are we all doing wrong?
We don't do anything wrong. It's just his way to say that the world of sexual desires should belong to people who look like movie stars.
You don't have to change your beloved sweater :)
"They were nerds before the word existed,"
Pioneers!
"They enjoyed wearing synthetic sweaters whose smell talks abou long-ago summers and winters"
Proud of tradition!
"they found their place on the Internet"
But swift to embrace new technology!
A propos "Joueuse", I'd be greatful if someone would help me to find English subtitles for this movie.
I don't belong in this group anyway: I use a deodorant, have no weight problems and wear contact lenses ,:) . Are these the reasons why my rating is only around 1950?
Mig, how about you ban this person from the site. He is unadulterated poison.
Is it me or the kid's arm is a bit too long? Another photoshop disaster?
The HSBC ad reminds me of those photos of a Kasparov-Carlsen training session: http://maestroajedrez.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/carlsen03-kasparov.jpg
Computers complete both scenes of a father figure looking on with wise beneficence as the young, blonde protege reaches across the board to assay a move.
I was away and now back only see ban some one. I hope not to be band also I am adult not un adult so mabey that is lucky for me to not be band. Time to make tea and hope not I be band tomorow. Who can say. Mabey Mr. Cat.
My hero.
lol hadn't noticed that. What a fail :)))
Who said it was a kid? It's a droid. That's why the guy is under no (parental/housework etc) pressure.
That is so funny , great material !
I think it's just perspective (the kid is sitting in front of laptop & reaching across board).
I'm really looking forward to Corus, especially given the strong play lately of Hikaru Nakamura, who should be more of a factor than formerly in this A tourney.
By the way could anyone... Mig? a Dutchman? confirm for me the correct pronunciation of Wijk aan Zee? Do I have it right as 'wike ann zay'?
[ʋɛik aːn zeː]. So it is about like "wake un they"
I'm not a dutchman but a german. I would pronounce it "weak un (like uncle) sea", but maybe I'm not right too. Only a guess. But somebody told me some weeks ago that to learn dutch as a german should be easy.
Gerhard
Really? You're saying the z in Zee is pronounced like 'th' in English?!
I am a relative expert on this, a German living in the Netherlands for the past ten years (but I still have an accent speaking Dutch). Learning Dutch is fairly easy [most words resemble either German or English], the pronunciation is still tricky. I would say kenhabeeb had it almost right, but the a in "aan" should be a bit longer, altogether maybe like "aunt" without the final t.
How about: the boy is a young competitive player and the papa is a retired ex-player and they are in a training camp using comps to analyze moves in a relaxed mediterraean environment? The board is there just to remind them how the pieces look like. The boy is of course magnus carlsen and daddy is kasparov.
"I was wrong. The 76% of the baseball writers who didn't vote for McGwire were right. My common sense and higher character standards for the HoF have returned. I don't agree with Michael's "it's ok, because everyone else was doing it" morality. Goose Gossage and Mike Schmidt agree with me, Steve Carlton, John Kruk, Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, and hundreds of other players were not doing it. Mark McGwire and the other illegal drug users do not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, because they are not Hall of Fame caliber people."
I used be to against drug testing in chess, because I don't think drugs will help your performance. I was thinking about the Baseball HoF and decided I was wrong for character issues. What do you guys think?
Wijk rhymes on bike. W like in very. zay is correct. Take part in Corus sometime and you will pick it up - I leave on Sunday 3rd time in a row. Every chess player should allow him/herself this experience.
or is it 'rhymes with'?
Yea, rhymes 'with' is correct, but are you sure the W in Wijk is pronounced like the V in very?
Gerhard didn't correct me on that one. sorry to beat this to death, but I just want to know the definitive answer :)
Is there a Dutchman in the house?!
Thomas --
Are you solid on Wijk sounding like ana airy wike?
I am not a native speaker, neither Dutch nor English - and there are various dialects, accents or idioms in both languages. j nielsen is right (to the best of my knowledge) that the "W" in Wijk should rather be pronounced as an English v. But I asked some Dutchies who are also fluent in English: it's hard to write it in English _exactly_ the way it's pronounced in Dutch!?
"I am not a native speaker, neither Dutch nor English"
Aw, I thought you were cool. ;)
No pronounciation expert, only dutch, I would say:
wijk does rhyme on bike, and I would not say the dutch 'w' is an english 'v'.
I kinda like 'wike ann zay', though we dutchies tend to pronounce the 'z' more and more like an 's' and also the double 'aa' in 'aan' tends to get shortened to a single 'a' in modern -streetsmart- dutch.
'Why can see' pronounced in my personal dunglish and with the 'c' transferring a little to 'why' sounds pretty good and modern to me.
And we're not that big, getting lost is even harder than speaking Dutch.
Sorry to be pedantic, but its "pronunciation".
And sorry, but it's "it's".
True, typo. Goes to show how we all make mistakes.. Pity that so many in this world refuse to acknowledge simple inconsequential mistakes..
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