Pestaño: Patti Page and other stars who play chess

Chessmoso

Friday, January 11, 2013

I GREW up with her music. Patti Page, 85, one of the greatest entertainers of all time, passed away a few days ago after a career that span almost seven decades and close to 1,000 recordings.

She was famous for the immortal hit “Tennessee Waltz,” her signature song, and other monster hits such as “(how much is that) Doggie in the window” ,“I went to your wedding,” and “Mockin Bird Hill.”

It seems that pop stars and chess get along well. Here are some singers that play chess.

ohn Lennon and Ringo Starr of the Beatles were avid chess players On the promo video of the song “Imagine” John and wife Yoko played chess with both playing white to symbolize peace and love.

Ringo Starr designed a chess-set in the shape of human hands, Frank Sinatra was also known as the “Chairman of the (chess) Board”.

Madonna actually can be seen playing chess in a couple of her music videos. In fact, Madonna is so incredibly serious about chess that she and former husband, Guy Ritchie, actually had taken chess lessons from Scottish chess champion Alan Norris.

Sting and his band The Police played a charity match in New York in 2000 against World Champion Garry Kasparov.

Here is a discussion between U2 frontman Bono and Bob Dylan. Bono: do you play chess? Dylan: Yeah, I play chess. Are you a chess player? Bono: I am a chess player.

Singers Helen Reddy and Graham Nash participated in the 1988 Celebrity chess tournament in Los Angeles in 1988.

The Bobby Darin Chess Classic was held in 1973 and attracted some of the best players in the world with a prize fund of $25,000.

David Bowie’s love of chess is well documented; he has a picture playing chess with his The Hunger co-star, Catherine Deneuve.

Although blind, some grandmasters have estimated Ray Charles elo rating to be around 1800. During his funeral, his manager Joe Adams told country singer Willie Nelson, “Willie, I think this is a good time to tell the people that you’re in a good position now to beat Ray in a chess game.”

Nelson laughed and said, “I sure couldn’t do it before.”

Fats Domino invited Bobby Charles, also a composer, to a show in New Orleans. The young singer said he had no way to get there. “Well,” the fat man said, “You’d better start walking.” And sure enough, a song popped into Charles’ head: “Walking To New
Orleans.” Fats was a strong player.

Singers and chess players Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond were classmates of Bobby Fischer in grade school. Barbra taught Bobby how to play the guitar, Bobby taught Neil how to write songs and Neil taught Barbra how to play chess--although it’s a little bit mixed up.

Chess is a musical play that became a worldwide phenomenon composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaues (Abba) with lyrics by Tim Rice. All of them play chess, including Elaine Paige.

Elaine Paige (OBE) is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre-Evita, Cats, Sunset Boulevard, The King and I and Chess the Musical..

Singer-actress Jessica Simpson and rocker Billy Corgan, who have refused to confirm speculations they are dating, are reportedly obsessed with playing chess against one another.

Rappers who play chess are LL COOL J, Jay-Z, DJ Green Lantern, Ludacris, Nelly, Sticky Fingaz and Wu-Tang Clan.

Sinulog. There will be a Sinulog tournament tomorrow and Sunday at Colonnade Mall that will be played in two formats. There will be a prize of P25,000 for standard chess and P7,000 for Infinitum chess, a variant invented by Bogie Lim who is also sponsoring the tournament. It is held in coordination with the Cebu City Sports Commission and Department of Education.

Tournament starts at 10am. For details contact Roger Abella-09102686890, boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com.

Pestaño: Why chess is called the royal game

Chessmoso

Friday, January 4, 2013

CHESS is called the royal game because practically every king, queen, emperor, maharajaj and tsar have played it.

Two royals have been in the news lately--Charles 1 and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Jacintha Saldanha, the British nurse who committed suicide two weeks ago after being taken in by a prank call to a hospital treating Prince William’s pregnant wife Kate, hanged herself.

Two Australian DJs had phoned the King Edward VII private hospital pretending to be William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth and his father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles. The information released was a major embarrassment for the hospital.

After their wedding, Prince William and wife had allegedly planned to play a game of
chess instead of a “balcony kiss”--as part of a tradition started by their parents Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana.

They say Prince Charles, Anne and the other royals were taught chess in their nursery.

Queen Elizabeth II certainly does and her comment: “I play, but I am always losing. I learned my chess the hard way. ”

A chess board carried by King Charles I to his execution on Jan. 30,1649 has sold at auction for £600,000 last month.

The board, crafted out of amber and silver, was made in 1607 and had been given to Charles by his father James I.

Chess fanatic Charles’s final act before being beheaded in 1649 was to give it to his chaplain. Charles was such an enthusiast for chess that he was engrossed in a game when a messenger told him he had been betrayed by the Scots to the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.

In India, the Mogul emperor Akbar played on a giant board with elephants and horses and Shah Jehan, who built the Taj Mahal, sponsored living chess with 32 virgins as pieces. The winner took the 32 virgins as prize. If the game had been played here, Cepca members Jun Olis and Dante Arguelles would be fighting for the slot.

But this one takes the cake. King Muley Hassan of Morocco played live chess using
prisoners from the royal dungeons. Captured pieces were executed on the spot.

King Canute, the first king in all of England, was playing Earl Ulf of Denmark when he tried to take a move back. But the Earl wasn’t about to agree. After a vigorous debate, the Earl knocked the board over. In chess parlance this was a fatal blunder and Canute had him slain.

William the Conqueror once broke a chessboard over a French prince’s head when he lost a game. The son of Pepin the Short, after losing to a Bavarian nobleman killed him with a rook.

It seemed that Prince Valdemar of Denmark had a good defense. When he was attacked by a rival king while playing chess, he used the board as shield.

The Emperor Charlemagne was given a present, a chess set, by his contemporary Haroun al-Rashid, and can still be seen in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris today.

King Conchubair of Ireland divided his day into three parts--one third for drinking, one third for fighting and one third for chess.

Econg. KC Morala sent this report. “US-based grandmaster and the pride of Cebuanos, Enrico “Econg” Sevillano held a chess exhibition by playing against 25 selected players simultaneously last Dec. 27, 2012 in Colonnade Mall.

Diego Abraham Claro and Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano, from UC and USC respectively won each of their matches against the grandmaster.

Meanwhile, Cepca players Fabio Abucejo and Ruel Hortelano managed to nick a draw from GM Sevillano. Me and Felix Shaun Balbona also drew their games. I and F.S. Balbona are players of the Carolinian chess team.

The exhibition was sponsored by Reynato Avila, president of Colonnade Mall, and organized by Cepca.”

(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)