What's Wrong With This Picture??

Great picture quiz btw.

Thanks. I love the old B&W photos, in case you couldn't tell.

the boards are incorrect , theirs 2 scratches on the picture , and that man is eyeballing the bleezy his buddy lit up.

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Batgirl, You have disabled notes in your profile. Therefore, I want to ask the question here.

No. You're all wrong. Don't u see the blackball cam (eye in the sky) in the upper lefthand corner ? Well, that's Bobby Fischer spying in utero (his mother was 8 months pregnant 4 him @ the time).

Besides, it was player's choice back then to set the board up w/ white on right & precedence hadn't been established that it meant white on lower (not upper) right. So the boards are fine & the cigar is from Q'ba.

While I might possibly go along with the unborn-Fischer theory, the second part seems to be fairly inaccurate.

Even back as far as 1838, and since this was in print, probably long before that year, William Lewis, possibly the main spokesman for British chess at the time, wrote in "The Chess-board Companion: Containing the Laws of the Game..." under "Law 1' : "The chess-board must be so placed that each player has a white corner square at his right hand."

I think you may be thinking that prior to the 20th century in wasn't unheard of for the player with the Black pieces to move first.   However "Mitchell's Guide to the Game of Chess" (by D. A. Mitchell and Em. Lasker) in 1915, under "Chess Rules and Instructions," which incidentally gives the first example i've encountered of the succinct, 'White Right' and 'Queen on her color," (his words) also informs us that the American Chess Code, created in 1897 was largely, almost entirely in fact, built upon the widely accepted British Chess Code. Since the British Code  dictated the 'White on Right' rule, so did the American Code, making the rule, for all intent and purposes, universal.  But it also stated that White must move first, ending that variation.

Mitchell does give the interesting N.B. :
"It is not of any real consequence whether the board be placed with a white or black corner square to the right hand; but, to avoid disputes, the above Law has been made.  If you place the board properly, and play with the black men, it is precisely the same as if you place it improperly and play with the white men. "

By the same token, Mitchell also states that if the mistake of board placement is noticed before 4 moves have been made, the game should be restarted, but if 4 moves have been played, the game should continue (the same rule applied is the pieces were set up wrong).

The American Chess Code, for those interested, was published by the Manhattan Chess Club in 1897, finalized by Col. W. F. Morse for the Manhattan Chess Club in 1899. and accepted by chess clubs across the country.  It became known as the British and American Chess Code.

Even in 1880, there was an adopted American Chess Code, though not quite as compelling. "De Witt;s American Chess Manual" published it.  The very first rule reads, "The Chess-board must be placed with the white square at the right-hand corner.

Codification of chess had been an ongoing process during much ot the second half of the 19th century. Distinguished players from all over the world, such as Carl Jaenisch and A. Petroff of Russia, v.d. Lasa of Gernmany, Serafino Dubois of Italy, Howard Staunton of England and Prof. Allen of Philadelphia all supplied input and arguments concerning the rules and how they should be fixed.

(batgirl) While I might possibly go along with the unborn-Fischer theory....

One of his buttons is different to the others.

#27

a patient and thoughtful explanation, truly rare

There is something way more wrong than the position of the boards: His suit is not tailored!

I'm sorry, I overlooked your posting. But, to be honest, I'm not sure what you are asking or saying. 

The U.S. used ratings long before Elo (Arpad Elo had been the Wisconsin (a state in the U.S.) presented his system. Primarily we used a system developed by Ken Harkness.  I have Elo's articles where he discusses the improvements on the Harkness System, but I would have to research to find Harkness' original presentations.  The UK had/has their own system, the ECF, created by Clarke, which had been around for a long time before FIDE adopted the Elo System.   I don't have any idea if having a numerical rating system helped create stronger players.  But that seems like an interesting premise.  What do the Russian sites have to say?

Even flipping the picture doesn't "fix" everything. Now the demonstration board is wrong.

C'mon, it was WW2.  The boards were intentionally set up wrong to confuse the Germans.

You're welcome.

And his suit is still not tailored. 

he forgot to light his cigar.

Tuna's right. He forgot to lite his cigar....Hi Tuna !!....I'm happy ur stil alive........

Hi Lola!!

http://youtu.be/t2NgsJrrAyM