Friday Coffee
The end of January already! This month has slipped by so quickly, and I still haven’t got used to writing ‘2020’! I suppose part of it is that the world seems to doing everything faster and faster; and part of it is that I have been especially busy this month.
Ignored by Main Stream Media, Again
Main Stream Media. (MSM) How do I define it? Huge news conglomerates that include newspapers and broadcast media that have global reach. That might do, or something along those lines.
That is, if a tournament takes place in India (for example) and is only reported by India’s national media, then that is not what I take to be MSM. There has to have a global reach to meet my definition of MSM.
Like when Ronaldo or Messi scores a hat-trick and the WHOLE world soon knows all about it!
Popular dedicated-chess websites like ChessBase, ChessCom, Chess24, etc (you get the picture) are certainly not MSM. These are sites with limited readership and only amongst chess fans.
In any case, MSM rarely covers chess events. Increasingly ignores it, infact. This is a subject that I often write about here on this blog. The match for the Women’s World Chess Championship was mentioned only once or twice in MSM — and that because of the hijab controversy!
Infact, when Ju Wenjun won the match MSM did not even deem it worth mentioning! It is unfortunate that FIDE does not have an employee who is tasked with directly contacting MSM outlets with news of chess events that are worthy of global reach.
I thought that Mark Weeks had retired from blogging, but apparently not. The above is Mark’s blog column from yesterday. Good to see that I am not the only one who has noticed the conspicuous absence of interest of MSM in chess matters.
Are FIDE Trainer fees really necessary?
Peter Heine Nielsen, also known as Carlsen’s coach, has been a frequent critic of FIDE’s trainers’ titles, as have I been over the years. It is often seen just as another FIDE cash grab. The actual titles themselves have little or no value, in most schools they are worthless pieces of paper that will not get you past the front office.
In any case, Peter likes to keep digging away at this, and here are some of the replies to his latest tweet:
