Three Yahoo Surprises

Once again, the last unconditional post of the month brings us the month's Yahoos. (For an explanation of 'Yahoos', see the footnote below.) Before looking at the month's stories, let's have the usual statistics and meta-analysis of the month's news.

At the end of June, Google News returned 98 stories from 49 different news sources. The 10 news sources with at least two stories are listed in the chart on the left.

As usual, Chess.com dominated the chess news stories with more stories than the other top nine sources combined. This is no surprise and has happened umpteen times before, maybe even every month. The list of top sources does, however, contain a number of surprises.

The first surprise is the no.2 position held by FIDE. Last month, in Youtube Yahoos (May 2023), Chessbase was no.2, a ranking it has held or shared every month since last year's post Cheating Mania (September 2022), where the New York Times was no.2 and Chessbase was no.3.

The second surprise is the number of news sources which we haven't seen before in the Yahoo series. I should spend some time discussing those new sources, but that will have to wait for later. I'm already late with this post and there are other matters to attend to.

The third surprise isn't really a surprise. It's been expected since the September 2022 'Cheating Mania' post, which started,

It didn't take a crystal ball to predict that this month's Yahoos' post was going to be about Carlsen/Nakamura vs. Niemann, aka the chess cheating affair. The scandal broke three weeks ago and shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon.

For a summary of posts about the scandal, see Cheating for all Ages (March 2023). For the latest on the scandal, this month's top story, I come back to 'that will have to wait for later'.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

***

Later: Unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes when I prepared the discussion above. At the top of its results, Google News returned blocks of stories on two specific chess topics that I failed to include in my counts. As an example, both blocks included a story by CNN. If I had counted both stories, the CNN count would show four stories instead of two. I'll use the CNN stories to represent the two blocks.

'News about Global Chess League' (three stories; plus six more stories among the other 98 returned by Google News)

• 2023-06-29: Magnus Carlsen headlines new chess tournament ‘to scale the game to a billion fans’ (cnn.com) • 'With chess riding a wave of popularity in recent years, the game is seizing on the opportunity to revolutionize the way it’s played and consumed. The inaugural Global Chess League (GCL), which got underway in Dubai on June 22, is the latest event to offer a new format for the game.'

'Judge dismisses $100m chess lawsuit' (two stories, plus link for 'Full Coverage'; eight more stories among the other 98)

• 2023-06-28: Judge dismisses Hans Niemann’s $100 million lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen, among others, in chess cheating scandal (cnn.com) • 'A US judge on Tuesday dismissed the $100 million defamation lawsuit filed by American chess grandmaster Hans Niemann against Magnus Carlsen, among others, in an alleged cheating scandal which has rocked the sport, according to court documents.'

Those two topics each accounted for far more stories than we usually see on a single topic in a typical month of Yahoos. What about the nine sources (excluding Chess.com) with at least two stories? I'll feature what I consider the top story for each source.

• 2023-06-28: The match for Women's World Champion title: Celebration of China and Chess (fide.com) • 'The forthcoming match for the title of the Women's World Chess Champion will be a unique event in chess history. China, known for its supremacy in women's chess, finds itself in a very rare position of holding both the absolute [NB: the title currently held by Ding Liren] and women's chess crowns simultaneously.'
• 2023-06-27: GM Srinath Narayanan: There’s a consensus in world of chess that India is a superpower (indianexpress.com) • 'In GCL [Global Chess League; another story!], upGrad Mumba Masters team manager Srinath Narayanan is bringing Indian chess team’s traditions to help his side gel together.'
• 2023-06-23: Members Sanctioned by US Chess Now Public Information (uschess.org) • 'Effective immediately, US Chess is publishing the names of US Chess members who have been sanctioned by our organization. This decision by the Executive Board was reached via an 8-0 vote. Minors will not be named, but their sanction will be listed.' • For background, see last month's 'Youtube Yahoos', linked in the first part of this post; keyword = 'Alejandro Ramirez'.
• 2023-06-29: Explained: The format of the world’s first and largest official franchise chess league (cnbctv18.com) • 'The Global Chess League or GCL, is the world's first and the largest official franchise chess league. The inaugural edition of the GCL is being played in Dubai.' • Yet another GCL story!
• 2023-06-19: Body language, knowledge of the game and luck: the art of chess photography (cnn.com) • 'Maria Emelianova is a leading chess photographer, tasked with traveling the world to document the highs and lows of the sport.'

The next three sources -- Huntington Herald Dispatch, Jewish Link of New Jersey, and Prima Games -- had local stories mainly of interest to local readers. The last source, Sportstar, has been mentioned in several Yahoos, most recently in Deja Vu Yahoos (December 2022; 'the Sportstar [thehindu.com] stories were mostly about the National Chess Championships of India'). This month, both Sportstar stories were about the GCL. Because of other commitments, I haven't been following the GCL, but it doesn't take a keen chess news fan to figure out that India is deeply involved.