Wednesday Coffee
Getting Rooked?!
Hey, that is not coffee! The lovely Ukraine chess master Nastya Rakhmangulova (what a name!) in what seems a sort of commercial-shot for Schweppes, which has sponsored a Ukraine chess ‘party’ called Independence Day Schweppes 2020.
Coca Cola and FIDE started last year (2019) to co-operate in Poland and Latvia for several chess events and had planned even bigger things in 2020, but the pandemic severely limited everyone’s options.
FIDE director Emil Sutovsky wrote on his FaceBook:
This year, the cooperation between FIDE and Coca-Cola was severely cut due to the pandemic. It’s a pity, because back in February, we were confirmed in writing in several countries – with an increase in total funding by about 10 times compared to pilot projects in 2019. But there is a crisis. Still, some projects managed to stand up. One of them, under the brand Schweps will be held in Ukraine. By our agreement with Coca Cola, it will be a mix of online and offline. Online tournament and sessions of simultaneous game in five largest cities in the country.
Sponsorship is always good, but I ask myself if something might not have got lost in translation? The expression ‘We will rook you’ means ‘We will swindle you’ .
