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Friday, April 1, 2022

Throwing Over the Chessboard - An Analogy for Our Times

When I saw this article (an opinion piece) at The New York Times today, I immediately thought of many old tales of Kings and men of high rank who have smashed chessboards after losing a game, or used the chessboard to strike at the winner, wiping chess pieces off the board in a display of temper, etc.  

Putin Just Threw Over the Chess Board and Russians Feel Shame and Dismay 
March 31, 2022
Serge Schmemann

Check out Chessmaniacs.com "Sore Losers and Tempers in Chess" for some examples (by no means all of them) of players throwing hissy fits after losing a game of chess. 

Listverse.com also has an interesting list of "10 Craziest Events in the History of Chess," which includes a review of several chessplaying greats from the past who were from the beginning or ended up being mentally unbalanced - some claim as a result of the game and what it does to one's mind.  Check Out #2 on the List - "Chess Rage."   

A trip down memory lane and as far as I can tell, the use of the term "throwing over the chessboard" by The New York Times for the first time.  Many of my readers may not have been born in 1993, and many of my readers may have forgotten about this period in chess history, so take a trip down memory lane when chessplayers around the world revolted against a corrupt FIDE and formed their own independent players' association and held their own independent tournaments.

From The New York Times
September 21, 1993
(From The New York Times' Digital Archives)


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