Shameless Self-Publicity

It’s 6am, but the guy on the other end of Skype is even more tired than I am – the voice I’m hearing for the first time belongs to a man coming to the end of a 14-hour shift in Italy.

He’s a technician for the Internet Chess Club, and I’m doing a quick training session on online radio and internet commentary on their server.  We joke about each other’s accent, sympathise about each other’s hour of the day/night, and finish up with an agreed time to meet next week before the live commentary session.

While it’s been the standard readjustment fortnight for my fellow Olympiadians following Khanty-Mansiysk, my recovery hasn’t been entirely devoid of chess.

First off, I’m attempting to emulate one of the great Australian heroes, Richie “Maaaarrrrvellous!” Benaud, with a foray into commentary.  Of course, chess continues to be unpopular with television stations (although recall my idea for Twenty20 televised chess…).  However, one of the great advantages of the internet age is that chess fans can watch multiple games from top tournaments being played live, with matching online commentary from grandmasters across the world.

And so it is that next Wednesday I’ll be presenting on Chess.FM‘s online radio coverage of the Nanjing tournament – the first tournament in history to feature three (!) 2800’s.  Anand, Carlsen and Topalov are competing, along with Wang Yue, Bacrot and one of my favourite Azeri players, Gashimov. 

Games start at 2.30am ICC-server time, or 5.30pm Australian EST, a very pleasant start time relative to the usual European tournaments for us Australian spectators.  You can listen live from the site and watch the games being streamed from multiple chess web sites, but if you want to also see the live analysis I’ll be doing on the boards, you’ll have to either have an ICC account or sign up for a (free) trial.  Given that my entire commentary experience to date has been satirical Richie cricket skits based on The Twelfth Man, it’s guaranteed to be… interesting.

If you can excuse another shameless plug, I’ve just done an interview 

with Singapore Chess News.  Fortunately, besides the stock-standard interview questions such as “What got you into chess?”, the interviewer, Olimpiu, has decided to mix it up a little.  There are some interesting questions about balancing chess with a day job, studies, and even a relationship.  Plus a really bad photo of me at breakfast.

I started wondering today why these chess media organisations are interested in an Australian grandmaster, given that there are a thousand or so GM’s in the world.  The answer is a little disheartening: because we are rare, and therefore exotic.  Why grab yet another 2500-something Russian grandmaster when you can get an Aussie accent on the air?  It’s a bit of a shame, and also highlights that, while international media have found chess marketable (and profitable!), we’re still sadly lagging behind here in Oz.

Still, all that will change when the younger generation of Australian players starts tearing up the world scene.  We have personalities like James Morris, fashion icons like Junta Ikeda and endearing enigmas like Anton Smirov, each blessed with both incredible chess talent and unique media appeal.  Perhaps Twenty20 chess has a future in Australia after all?

Until then, though, it’s a matter of publicising Australian chess if and when those rare occurrences crop up.  This of course assumes that I don’t mess up the live commentary by bursting into renditions of the Twelfth Man soundtrack, or using too much Aussie slang.  At least the Singapore interview was a good opportunity to accumulate a few more girlfriend brownie points, or at least get on the board.  The hand-washing comment in my last post seemed to negate all girlfriend compliments in a single strike.

Finally, and slightly randomly:  Check out this amazing watermelon carving of a rook that the chefs in Khanty-Mansiysk did!