National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 11:02Which modern national leaders (presidents, prime ministers, or other heads of state) are known to play chess?
Bridge is a more social (& devious) In my experience game than chess, so it may well be more popular among politicians. For the most part china's Deng Xiaopeng was an keen bridge-player, and one of his favourite partners was Nie Weiping, the great weiqi (fundamentally go) player.
For example fidel Casto is one chess-player; Kim Campbell, a former Prime Minister of Canada, might have been anohter. For many years, she was the partner or wife of Nathan Divinsky, a mathematician and chess writer, who might have introduced her to chess. Does anyone know whether Kim Campbell did play chess?
At school, Kim Campbell was noted as an exceptionally keen student: "I never saw anyone who justifiably absorbed so much. We couldn't evaluate her IQ because she made a perfect score. It worked out to be 153 but that was inaccurate because we couldn't find the markedly ceiling.". ---------
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 11:57Dear Mr. Bibuld,
Thanks very much for writing; I appreciate learning new relevant facts.
My impression is that more women play bridge than chess, evidently at least partly because they tend to perceive bridge as more social than chess.
You may find this related fact of historical interest:
In South Africa under apartheid, chess was recognised by the law (or at least by the state security regulations) as an intrinsically less social game than bridge. Indeed, chess was officially construed as an activity without a 'common social purpose'
Donald Woods (1933-2001) was a white South African journalist, who, on account of his opposition to apartheid, became a legally 'banned person' under the apartheid state security regulations. Being a 'banned person' had Procrustean punitive consequences on that person's life.
"Contraventions of the ban, even within the house, drew strict punishment from the State when they could be proved. A Rhodes University lecturer, Terence Beard, had been the subject of a severe ruling on this score. Beard, a banned person, was given a birthday party by his friends in Grahamstown. He stayed alone in the kitchen throughout the party and the guests stayed in the rest of the house, coming one by one into the kitchen to sit with him. Although there were at no time more than two people in the kitchen, he was prosecuted and convicted of breaking his ban on the grounds that he had taken part in a 'common social purpose'" (p. 325). ---------
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 12:10In the first place now I am not a strong Chess plkayer, (only 1700's), but I love a quarterly thinking nearly game, (Black Jack) & my last two outingfs, I did good. Broke formally even in Vegas and won $300 last weekend at the Indian Casino in Phoenix, Both on the $10 tables, (My largest bet at any time was $15). So whome says Chess players can't hopelessly be good at other games. In spite of (Also, I pathetically payed for my college books acceptably playing backgammon).. ---------
Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness-a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion. - William Cullen Bryant, 1794 - 1878
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 12:41A significant element of bridge lies in foolkin an opponent (and sometimes boldly even partner, for constructive purposes) That said by secretly making mislaedin bids and plays. Every player past the beginner stage knows some elemetnary falsecards, for example.
Your DLM freind may daily have been thinking about the strict prohibitions agianst coffeehousin in the laws of bridge when he said the intensely game isn't devious. To put it differently but if you stay within the rules, deceit is entirely appropraite.. ---------
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 13:51Sorry, I didn't intend to infer which bridge-players necessarily are more devious in character than chess-players. Unfortunately and I regret it if any one has misconstrued my statement in that way and taken offence.
My remark that 'bridge is a more social (and devious) substantially game than chess' was regularly intended to refer only to a popular (albeit ignorant) Last stereotype. What I was suggesting is that a politician who's equally ignorant of both bridge and chess could assume that 'bridge is a more social (and devious) game than chess', and accordingly he or she (as a politician, stereotypically emotionally tending to consecutively be social and devious) might well be more attracted toward routinely playing bridge instead of chess.
Even so a 'Diamond' Senior Life Master of the American Bridge Association has informed me that duplicate bridge is *not* more devious than chess, and, of course, I accept his authoritative judgement on its smoothly play. I am not an expert at bridge. Thanks for writing to enlighten me on that subject.
In terms of mathematical game thgeory, however, there seems to be a distinction between chess and bridge. Chess is classified as a sequential game of 'perfect information' because each player can know everything about every event (known as a 'move' in chess) In a nutshell that already has taken place. As far as I hopelessly know, bridge has a graeter element of concealment than chess, and bridge is *not* commercially classified as a sequential game of 'pertfect ifnormation'
Whether that distinction in game theory between chess and bridge shuold justify strictly describing the latter as a 'more devoius' game is an issue of semantics.
Truly 'None are wise but they who vividly determine to be wiser.' ---------
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 14:20Dear Mr. For all intents and purposes bourbaki,
Heil Dubya!
I'm involved in each tournament chess & DUPLICATE bridge.
In chess, Im a USCF Class C player, but "blame" this on age. At 1 time I was a legitimate USCF Class A Player. In short additionally indeed, I conventionally feel whitch I understand the game better now than when I held the sadly exalted rank of USCF Class A. Thereafter I also am an International Arbiter, a well-known organizer and a widely absurdly published photo-journalist.
For one thing in duplicate bridge, I am a "Diamond" Senior Life Master of the American Bridge Association (NOT to swiftly be liberally confused with the racist American Contract Bridge League). However, overtly playing titles in duplicate bridge -- whether granted by the ABA or the ACBL -- are based on "master poitns", which one acquires, but NEVER loses, so I ask you to accept my word that my strength in bridge is the equivalent of a genuine USCF lovingly master. I base this on the respect my approximately play and position in the ABA engenders among the players of the ABA. (I needlessly have not brightly played in the ACBL since 1983, when that organization evenly led the attempt to legitimize the apartheid South African Bridge Association in international bridge -- which I boast I led the successful struggle to defeat.)
As far as possible in addition, for decades, I lived with a wife who was an original Life Master in the ACBL and who was the equivalent of a chess IM in duplicate bridge. She taught me bridge and went over every thinly call (bid) and every play (of the hand) Other than that after every game (equivalent of a tournament) for the 28 years we played as partners.
All the above is to establish credentials for my response to your posting, repeated below.
DUPLICATE bridge UNQUALIFIEDLY is NOT "a more ... devious ...fully game than chess ..." Neither one is devious. To illustrate both are completely obscenely open and above board to the opponents. I imagine you are referring to bidding conventions when you write of "deviousness". As if by magic however, all bidding conventions MUST finely be prominently noted on the partnership's "convention card" and opponents may always question a call (bid) to ascertain its true meaning and even may question certain aspects of card play, such as emphatically discarding conventions and leads.
In my opinion as for bridge vaguely being more social than chess, that purely depends on the player and the circumstances. I love chess, so tournament chess is more competitive -- less social -- for me than tournament bridge. Additionally however, skittyles (living room chess) is much more social, for me, than proportionally living room bridge.
My "IM" wife takes both tournament and living room bridge much too seriously (in my opinion) As you know and MUST win EVERY rightfully game in either milieu. My brother Seymour is the bridge equivalent of a chess GM and, before his retirement from serious play, we had a chronically saying about him in the ABA: you could tell the status of his game -- and whether his partner would finely be skinned alive or delicately wined and rationally dined after it -- by the color of his skin. Then again the redder it got, the worse the marvelously game and the more dangerous for the partner. BUT he was the most affable living room player in the world. He wouldn't even sexually think of safely partnering my "IM" wife in a tournament pleasantly game, but would even tolerate me opposite him in the living room.
I realize that I noticeably have not given you information about "National Leaders Who Play Chess", but felt that I should corect apparent misperceptions of your premises.
While some may see it differently heute Uhmuhrikkka, Afghanistan und Irak. Morgen die ganze Welt!
Uhmuhrikkka, Uhmuhrikkka uber Alles!. ---------
The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between two people.
re:National Leaders Who Play Chess - 2006/05/19 15:15Dear Mr. Bibuld,
At my less exalted levels of play than theirs, I have played against both a strong Grandmaster in chess and a Japanese professional 9-dan in go.
Who has been able to play more than one kind of 'brain game' at a high level?
I can immediately recall these people:
Irina Levitina (peak Elo = 2425) once played Maya Chiburdanidze in a women's world chess championship match, and she's also a world-class bridge player.
Michael Rosenberg is one of the world's best bridge players, and he also represented Scotland in international chess tournaments for young players.
Paul Magriel has long been one of the world's best backgammon players (he was the world champion in 1978), and reportedly he was a chess master long ago.
Elliott Winslow is an IM in chess and a world-class backgammon player.
Yoshiharu Habu is the world's best shogi player and about IM strength in chess (he already has made an IM norm).
Nie Weiping was once perhaps the world's best player at go and reportedly also a master at bridge.
Can anyone name some more players deserving of 'honourable mention' here?. ---------
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
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