Chess.com Pic Inspires Reddit Photoshop Battle
A Chess.com photo by our photographer Maria Emelianova became the inspiration for a Reddit Photoshop Battle, and was subsequently picked up by other media. Some pretty funny spoofs are out there.
kora_kej's creation in the Reddit Photoshop battle: Ashley's reflection as the Mona Lisa.
For his victory at the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour in Leuven, Belgium Magnus Carlsen received a silver plate with a reflection as strong as a mirror. Chess.com photographer Maria Emelianova managed to snap what she was looking for: Maurice Ashley's reflection in that plate.
Maurice Ashley with a funny reflection in the plate that Magnus Carlsen
received for his win in Leuven. | Photo: Maria Emelianova.
Soon after our news report was published, with this picture as the main photo, user lynxbird posted it on Reddit, the American social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website. It was the start of a Photoshop battle, where members create spoofs of the original, and upvote the best submissions.
The Reddit post was a big success; it got a 90% upvote (similar to "approval") among more than 30,000 voters, and 724 comments in total at the time of writing. At some point it was the #9 thread on Reddit, and #1 in Photoshop battles.
Sadly, lynxbird did not mention the source, nor the photographer but at least Emelianova got some credit when one of Russia's main entertainment and lifestyle websites, Afisha, picked it up. They did their research, found the original and gave proper credit. Soon after, the Moscow-based online newspaper Lenta.ru mentioned the story as well.
Our own Danny Rensch discussed the topic on his Chess Today show.
You might have seen some of the following examples already, as they were posted in the comments under the news report by our member Clinkz, who claims to be the same person who started the thread on Reddit. Enjoy!
"Can I have the blue pill now?" | Image: Joe_Haynes.
"Babe, you forgot a spot..." | Image: Dudeski021.
"A fitting gift." | Image: redhotpisser.
"May the power protect you always." | Image: seoisa.
Goofaces. | Image: need_steam_code_pls.
Reflection. | Image: tori_bird.
Tennis. | Image: lynxbird.
"Oh no, not the hors d'oeuvre." | Image: photonshop.
"Moisturise me!" | Image: FRIENDLY_FETUS_KING.
Mirror. | Image: scattey.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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