Yahoos Masquerading as Yahoos

Masquerading? Yes, it's Halloween today. The end of another month means another post about chess news being reported in the mainstream press, aka Yahoos (see the footnote for more info). Before looking at the stories, let's have the usual statistics.

This month Google News returned exactly 100 stories. One story was almost a year old -- at least according to the date assigned by Google -- an anomaly not seen before in this series of posts on Yahoos.

Looking at the story, an announcement for a tournament in Florida, there is no mention of a year. The story may very well have been reused from 2022 for 2023, perhaps leading to an error in Google News.

Of the other 99 stories, news sources with more than one story are listed in the chart above. Just like every other month, Chess.com tops the list, this time with fewer stories than the other eight sources combined. The last time this happened was World Championship Yahoos 2023 (April 2023).

The eight top news sources taken together accounted for 54 stories, leaving 45 stories from sources with a single story. Another statistic worth noting: real Yahoo sources taken together -- like Yahoo Entertainment, Yahoo News, etc. -- accounted for four stories, making them top Yahoo stories in disguise. I'll come back to them later when I have the time to sift through all of the stories.

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

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Later: Re 'real Yahoo sources taken together [...] accounted for four stories', I discovered that only one of the stories was really about chess (e.g. 'geopolitical chess game' is not a chess story) and the one story was a minor article about 'high schools chess teams' [sic]. Wondering if I had previously overlooked combining different Yahoo sources, I looked at the three previous monthly Yahoo posts, and discovered only one Yahoo sourced story. It was a press release that exists in two different versions:-

• 2023-09-18: Online Chess Instruction and Play Market Size -- $ 363.98 Billion by 2030 at CAGR of 13.14% CAGR (yahoo.com; original source: 'Proficient Market Insights') • '$ 363.98 Billion'? The body of the press release said, 'USD 363.98 million by 2030'. Maybe that's why the press release was re-released...
• 2023-09-26: In 2023, Online Chess Instruction and Play market size is estimated to hit a CAGR of 13.14% by 2031 (ditto)

Getting back to the chart in the first section of this post, there is one new name: 'English Chess Federation'. The more compelling of the two stories is:-

• 2023-10-31: ECF Manager for Accessible Chess (englishchess.org.uk) • 'to support chess colleagues with various forms of impairment, be it blindness/visual impairment, deafness, wheelchair bound, special needs-related, or other impairments.'

Of the other top seven sources, let's look at a handful of Chess.com offerings, all of which are more about chess culture than about chess play. The site has a such a large team of chess journalists that I'll follow my usual practice of identifying the author of a story:-

• 2023-10-18: Enlighten Your Analysis With Torch, The New Top Engine Now Available On Chess.com (chess.com; CHESScom)
• 2023-10-25: The Fightback Starts Now, Says President Of New Women In Chess Foundation (chess.com; Leon_Watson) • Emilia Castelao
• 2023-10-27: Chess.com Takes Over TwitchCon (chess.com; aYoTisch)
• 2023-10-30/-11-05: 'GothamChess' New Book: Tops Amazon Lists, Becomes New York Times Bestseller (chess.com; TarjeiJS)
• 2023-10-31: Chess.com's First Original Production Wins Award At DOC LA Film Festival -- Watch It Now On MagellanTV (chess.com; Leon_Watson)

Of other stories from other sources, one in particular enhances the above list:-

• 2023-10-30: Checkmate! The Chess.com story – DNW Podcast #459 (domainnamewire.com) • 'Hear [Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest]’s fantastic story on today’s show.'

Before I close this post, here are a few more stories that I found noteworthy:-

• 2023-10-05: In Checking Chess’s Gender Bias, Researchers Find Parents and Mentors Shortchange Girls’ Potential (nyu.edu)
• 2023-10-26: On A Positive Note: Nonprofit uses chess to elevate young leaders (cbsnews.com)
• 2023-10-30: World Chess Unveils the First-Ever Chess Map: A Geographical Masterpiece (worldchess.com)

If you're looking for news about chess events, the story of the month was the FIDE Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man. Since it was ongoing as of the date of this post, I'll wait and include it in next month's post about Yahoos.