Pub-Talent, True Love and other nonsense
Meanwhile, at my favourite pub…
Natasha has a very special talent when it comes to drinking shots. Definitely ‘Grandmaster’ potential, don’t you agree? And what style!
TRUE PUB LOVE?

Has it ever happened to you that, late at night in your favourite pub, a girl in the corner catches your attention? No? Never? Not even once? Well, maybe you don’t frequent my kind of bar…the kind that actually sells alcohol!
More FIDE Poppycock

I don’t know it you have noticed the increased amount of superfluous material and/or ‘news’ that Dvorkovich’s FIDE webmasters have put onto its website or its other social media platforms (Instagram, FaceBook and Twitter) these past six months or so.
Especially the official website (www.fide.com): while I appreciate the new easy access to the FIDE Commissions links alongside the usual ratings and rules links, much of the rest of the homepage is cluttered up with non-essential FIDE items such as bits about random tournament winners, chess clock bids and ‘questionaires’.
Surely this has no place on the Homepage of the official site, and would be better suited on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. But come to think about it, much of exactly what appears on FIDE’s official website ALSO appears on these other platforms! Can’t somebody in the FIDE office get organized and set priorities? Dumping is never a good idea…
Another somewhat dubious item that the new FIDE administration has started are ‘polls’, such as the item above asking respondents to vote on their favourite player of all time.
What is the point of this? Moreover, what is the point of publishing statistics if the incredibly small number of respondents (511) makes any ‘result’ completely irrelevant? (Doesn’t FIDE’s rating list have some 250,000 individuals?)
As famed basketball coach John Wooden was fond of saying, “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” FIDE’s social media experiment needs to be re-thought.
Cute Mystery Girl

I recently came across this thumbnail of a cute girl holding a coffee mug with some poignant chess-related observation written on it. Nice! I instantly fell in love with her… Is she a chess player? Out of curiosity I decided to try to find out who took this photo and what the name of the girl is.
Using the Google image search function, I soon found heartbreak. She is just a composite (a mock up)…
I don’t know why, but I am disappointed! Even betrayed… Well, looking at the positive side of things, at least she is a coffee lover!
Chess & Champagne

Nice tattooed model Cathlin Ulrichsen, B&W photo by Johannes Bjelland. And don’t forget to notice that the board is set up correctly! (But I am disappointed in the glass) LINK
Dog owners don’t always look like their dog

FIDE Fair Play Committee holds secret meeting!

Following the great success of catching Grandmaster Igor Rausis cheating in a washroom stall during a tournament in Strasburg, the FPC (Fair Play Committee) held a special celebratory meeting on their starship to discuss catching their next ‘victim’. There are many ‘suspects’, but one in particular has aroused their interest:
Too bad she is not using her cellphone!