John Healy, celebrated author of The Grass Arena, takes on 14 players simultaneously at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in London. He won 13 games and drew one. The display was filmed for a forthcoming documentary about Healy’s life.
John Healy at Simpson’s
June 16th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Features
Tags: John Levy·Simpson's·The Grass Arena
Do we know what TV station will be showing the documentary, and any idea when it will be shown? I’d hate to miss it.
Thanks for your comment. Not clear yet when or where the doc will be screened. Watch this space!
PLEASE COULD YOU PRINT SOMETHING ABOUT THE FOLLOWING…
The British Parliamentary Candidate Chess Olympiad
http://mdedwards.typepad.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139176516119
It is not quite of the order of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal”, but I have a modest proposal.
It is that at the forthcoming British General Election there is a public chess tournament in each constituency between all of the candidates.
In each constituency, each candidate would play each other once in a round robin tournament in public, face to face play.
Although electors should obviously base their decisions on policies, it might be interesting to see how each candidate expresses themselves on the board as well.
The following is a quotation on chess by Benjamin Franklin in 1779.
http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/4278/quotes2.html
“The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strenghtened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have points to gain, and competition or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
First, Foresight…
Second, Circumspection…
Third, Caution…
And lastly, We learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources.”
Here is the Swiftian Modest Proposal:
http://books.google.com/books?id=1-o-OjdTptoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Swift+modest+proposal#v=onepage&q=&f=false
The profile picture is a copy of “The Chess Players” by Henry Schwartz (1958):
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/10/chess-in-art-xx.html
Streatham and Brixton Chess Club have a lovely Chess in Art series:
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2006/10/chess-in-art-index.html