22 August 2021

Chess Isn't Rigged!

For this month's edition in the long-running series on The Sociology of Chess (November 2016), let's revisit a recent post, Three Times Yahoos (July 2021). One of those 'Times' was the the New York Times (NYT). I wrote,

'Dark Side of Chess' by Ivan Nechepurenko and Misha Friedman, accounted for two Google references. [...] The 'dark side' -- focusing on Sergei Karjakin and Abhimanyu Mishra -- is a long exposé about how young chess talents *really* earn their GM titles.

On his 'More GMHikaru' Youtube channel, GM Hikaru Nakamura read the entire NYT article, interspersed with his own comments on the Nechepurenko / Friedman insinuations. When it comes to chess, the not-so-genial GM generally knows what he is talking about and isn't afraid to point out where a writer got it wrong.


Chess Drama - It's About the Cheque, Mate (48:25) • '[Published on] Jul 14, 2021'

Nearly two weeks after that dissection, GM Nakamura, a five-time U.S. champion, tackled the same subject on his 'GMHikaru' channel in Yes, Top Level Classical Chess Is Rigged (Youtube.com). Why two Youtube channels? I don't know and it's of no concern to me. For a previous Nakamura effort using the same read-and-comment format, see How Much Do the Artisans Get? (July 2021).

P.S. Don't be misled by the video's 'Chess Is Rigged' title. It doesn't mean exactly what it says.

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