Chess Under the Elements

Playing Chess Got to Be a Problem

Chess is suffering and suffering is chess. I have no doubt that you feel the same as I do. Every day.

"Because I would play
To the exclusion of everything else,
Including eating and sleeping.
I quickly discovered
Chess was my one real addiction,
That it would get in the way
Of all the other areas of my life
If I let it."

Charlie McCormick

. 

Two days ago I tweeted the below photo. It shows two street chess players in the Union Square in New York. they were perfectly unperturbed and uninfluenced by weather. The snow didn't stop them from finishing the game. 

Over two days the tweet has received almost 40,000 views and become my best-performing tweet ever.

Then it came to me that Russians must behave the same. So I went to their Web domain and found two images where it was snowing quite heavy.

Here are Russians playing and kibitzing under the elements. In the second photo the guy seems to be analyzing a position as no other player can be seen on the opposite side. 

Then Ukrainians should not be much different I thought and Web indicated a picture in a park in Kiev (photo credit Konstantin Chernichkin/New York Times).

You are also going to see a few pix when it was raining heavily (1. Bogota, Colombia; 2-3. unklnown places; 4. Belgrade, Serbia; 5. Paris, Monmartre).

Finally a video from China with a torrential rain.

Let me stay in your arms
I'm addicted to your charms
You're getting to be a habit with me
I used to think your love was something that I could take or leave alone
But now I couldn't do without my supply
I need you for my own
Oh, I can't break away
I must have you every day
As regularly as coffee or tea
You've got me in your clutches
And I can't get free
You're getting to be a habit with me

(the 1932 standard with many recorded versions, Betty Carter, Perry Como, Mel Torme, Doris Day, Buddy Rich, Frank SInatra, Diana Krall...; music was written by Harry Warren; lyrics by Al Dubin).

beautiful photos! Loved the 2nd-3rd, snowy b+w

Hi @introuble2, yeah, those chess players; thanks for dropping by

Thanks so much!

Enjoyed the post.

Thank u.

Nice! thanks for sharing that!

Both photo were taken on Tsvetnoy Boulevard (Moscow) in the 1950s almost simultaneously. The position on the board is the same, if you look closely.

White is lost, it seems.

really great blog. I liked the first pic from NYC, and the 2 from Russia, the best. The Russian photos I thought were particularly funny, imagining chess being played in the snow is one thing, but then imagine watching others play chess in such extreme conditions...talk about addicted!

Russians have a real love for the game, which is totally independent of "rating", and of sporting results. They love this thing we call chess! And so do I!

In the 2nd photo, the guy with the White pieces had probably resigned, and left the board. The guy that stayed is the guy with the Black pieces.

Hello RoaringPawn. Interesting -no doubt- topic and fine photos. Cheers!

I don't agree with you. In this game is a very important weather forecast factor. If the wind or might be a storm with tunderbolts are expected, who can predict the final result of the game? Those guys will play till the pieces can be seen on the board.

What they don't tell you is that the player in this photo is frozen.....he stayed after the game, pondering the mysteries of this game, calculating an imaginary race between pawns on opposite sides.....he never made it home!

Thanks you all folks for stopping by and having a word @anjum_samuel @blastingchess @Gottfrid @kamalakanta @ruhk34 @tzimakos1173 @rolsrojs @Nylonsock

with a board (art Bill Hunt, USA) that might look like this, blurry and doused in rain, eyes possibly having flashes of red from the heightened inferno, in case of a torrential downpour, raging around

Hey @Gottfrid, thanks really for the info. I was unsure, under (obviously wrong) impression that it was Omsk(?!).

As for the position, I wouldn't enter the discussion, as it seems a bit slippery to me

S. Bak, Lost, or Drowned?

Thanks, glad you liked it.

And yes, regarding those watching, exactly the same idea came to me; the players, ok, to a certain degree I can understand, but the onlookers staying there with them till the finish!? Crazy, isn.t it? 

I mean, it is not only Russians that show such a passion about it. What about the Montenegrins? 

Look, the Russian have 26 chess Masters (NM + IM + GM) per capita. On the other hand, Iceland 215, Montenegro 113, Serbia 98, which might be some indication about the widespread popularity of chess in these countries.

Here's the partial list of nations (the full one is on my blog)

Chess Masters per 1M pop (2016)

Iceland: 215
Montenegro: 113
Serbia: 98
Croatia: 67
Slovenia: 60
Hungary: 50
Czech Rep: 40
Israel: 39
Germany: 29
Russia: 26
Spain: 18
France: 9
England: 6
Italy: 5
USA: 3
India: 0.3
China: 0.2

Hey Rocko, how's things? I see some storms raging in Montenegro right now. Quiet in Sutomore?