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Oct-20-06
 | | Domdaniel: Here's a game actually played in Downing St, between a (future) PM and the chess editor of The Observer. 11 Downing St, c.1920
White: Andrew Bonar Law
Black: Brian Harley
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 exd4 6.Nxd4 Nd6 7.Re1+ Be7 8.Qg4 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 Nxb5 10.Qxg7 Rf8 11.Bh6 d5 12.Qxf8+ Kd7 13.Qxf7 Kd6 14.Rxe7! 1-0
(if 14...Qxe7 15.Bf8)
Callaghan played chess, as did Disraeli, Gladstone and Churchill - but Bonar Law was easily the strongest chess-playing PM. |
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| Oct-20-06 | | jamesmaskell: Chess-playing British PMs:
-Charles Wentworth, 1765-66, 1782
-William Petty, 1782-3
-William Pitt the Younger 1783-1801, 1804-6
-Herbert Henry Asquith 1908-16
-Clement Attlee 1945-51
-Sir Winston Churchill played board games, but not specific mention of chess. |
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Oct-20-06
| | Domdaniel: <jamesmaskell> Winston Churchill did play - he wrote a letter home when he was a 12-year-old schoolboy saying "Dear Mamma... do not forget to get the set of chess for me..." Later he reached the semi-final of a tournament played on a ship to India. There's also a story of him playing against fellow politician Asquith and using the battle-cry "Marshal your Baldwins" - apparently this was Churchillian slang for pawns. |
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| Oct-20-06 | | cicero1974: <chess and football> I believe that David Beckham is approaching GM strength |
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| Oct-20-06 | | mack: I don't quite know how we've got onto the subject of British PMs, but it's fascinating regardless. If you read Gladstone's diaries, especially the early volumes, there are constant references to chess - he played with his son Stephen a great deal, and read a lot of chess magazines in his first year at Oxford. |
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Oct-21-06
| | Domdaniel: <cicero1974: <chess and football> I believe that David Beckham is approaching GM strength> As are we all. |
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| Oct-27-06 | | code13: So how did Simen do in the dancing? Did he win the competition, was he eliminated early? |
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| Nov-01-07 | | TheGladiatres: He was eliminated rather early I'm afraid...
But he put up a strong performance against Grischuk in Blitz in Oslo recently. 2-2 after 4 games and then he sadly lost as black in armageddon. He crushed Peter Heine in their match for third place. |
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| Feb-06-08 | | The beginner: There is and interwiev with Simen on chessvibes.com He is really a likeable guy. He also talk a lot about Magnus Carlsen http://www.chessvibes.com/videos/in... |
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| May-15-08 | | brankat: Certainly a very talented player. Earned a GM title at the age of 18, Norwegian Champion at the age of 15. A good soccer player, too :-)
And, now, doing a great job with Magnus Carlsen!
Happy Birthday GM Agdestein! |
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| May-15-08 | | Paalsa: Gratulera med dagen Simen! |
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| Apr-30-09 | | mack: Denis Irwin comes out as a chess player... http://www.red11.org/mufc/irwinfact... |
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| Aug-19-09 | | timhortons: ICC handle GM Gruk. |
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Jan-11-10
 | | Honza Cervenka: <jahhaj: <Benzol> Surely the bio should mention Simen's soccer career. There can't be too many GMs who have also played soccer at national level.> Vlastimil Jansa played for youth Czechoslovak national soccer team and Ljubomir Ljubojevic was in cadre of junior team of Belgrade's Crvena Zvezda. |
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Jan-11-10
 | | paulalbert: I think Peter Leko was also an outstanding soccer player in his youth and a candidate to get into the program for developing professional and potential national team players, but chose chess instead. Paul Albert |
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| Jan-11-10 | | Jim Bartle: Leko dropped out of soccer, saying too many games ended in ties. |
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Apr-21-10
 | | GrahamClayton: <Laskerfan82>The only other chess master I know of who played a sport at the very top level was George Alan Thomas, who was seven-time All-England Badminton champion, and even reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Were there others? <Laskerfan82>,
Charles Watson, who was one of Australia's top players in the first quarter of the 20th century, played for the Melbourne Demons in the inaugral season of the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897. The VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990, and is the "major league" of Australian Rules football. |
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| May-15-10 | | laskereshevsky: Botvinnik in one of his book wrote that the czechoslovakian/english Cenek Kottnauer was an outstanding water-polo player |
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| May-15-10 | | TugasKamagong: Happy birthday, Simen! |
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| Nov-03-11 | | Korifej: Best chess player in football,and best football player in chess ever. |
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| Nov-20-11 | | newzild: chessgames.com: Could you please add the following two games to the database? Agdestein chose them himself when asked to supply his favourite games (source: http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/...: Agdestein - Karlsson, Gausdal 1987
1.Nf3 c5 2.e4 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.O-O-O Qb8 11.h4 Rc8 12.Bb3 a5 13.h5 a4 14.Bd5 Nxh5 On 14...e6 there follows 15.hxg6! exd5 16.Bh6 fxg6 17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.Qh6+ Kf7 19.Nxd5 and wins. 15.g4 Nf6 16.Nf5 Bxf5 The g-file must not be opened. 17.gxf5 Nb4 18.fxg6 Nfxd5Now, Black would win after 19.exd5 Rxc3 20.bxc3 Nxa2+, but Agdestein had prepared a fantastic move. (See diagram). 19.Bd4! Simply does not fulfill his part of the exchange, but reinforces the attack by neutralising the black bishop. 19...Bxd4 On Nf6, winning is 20.gxh7+ Kh8 21.Rdg1, and after 19...e5 a beautiful variation is: 20.gxh7+ Kh8 21.Rdg1 f6 22.exd5 exd4 23.Rxg7 Kxg7 24.Qh6+ Kf7 25.Rg1 and White wins. 20.Qxd4 e5 21.gxf7+ Kf8 Or Kxf7 22.Rxh7+ Kg8 23.Qg1+ Kxh7 24.Qg2 and Black is mated. 22.Qg1 Nf6 23.Rh6 Nxa2+ To gain a tempo for bringing his queen closer to the action. After Kxf7 there would follow 24.Qg5. 24.Nxa2 Dc7 25.Nb4 Qxf7 26.Rxd6 Ne8 27.Rd3 Rc4 28.Nd5 Rac8 29.c3 R4c6 30.Qg5 Rxh6 31.Qxh6+ Qg7 32.Qb6 Ra8 Here, White missed 33.Qc5+ Kg8 34.Rd1 and the rook enters decisively over g1. After the slightly weaker 33.Rd1, Black was able to postpone resigning until move 62: 33...Ra6 34.Qc5+ Rd6 35.Rg1 Qh6+ 36.Kb1 Qe6 37.Rg5 h6 38.Rf5+ Kg8 39.Ne3 Qb3 40.Kc1 a3 41.Qxa3 Qxa3 42.bxa3 Ra6 43.Rxe5 Ng7 44.Kb2 h5 45.f4 Re6 46.Rxe6 Nxe6 47.Ng2 Nc5 48.e5 Kf7 49.c4 h4 50.Nxh4 Nd3+ 51.Kc3 Nxf4 52.Kd4 Ke6 53.Nf3 Kf5 54.c5 Ne2+ 55.Kd5 Nc3+ 56.Kc4 Ne4 57.a4 Ke6 58.a5 Kd7 59.Nd4 Kc7 60.e6 Nf6 61.Nf5 Kc6 62.Ne7+ and Black resigned. And: 'I'm also happy with this combination.'
Agdestein - Dolmatov, Tilburg 1993
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bd3 0-0 6.Nge2 Nc6 7.0-0 Nd7 8.Be3 e5 9.d5 Nd4 10.Rc1 c5 11.dxc6 bxc6 12.b4 f5 13.exf5 gxf5 14.Bxd4 exd4 15.Na4 Qg5 16.f4 Qg6 17.c5 Kh8 18.Ng3 Nf6 19.Qf3 d5 20.Rfe1 Bd7 21.Re7 Rae8 22.Rce1 h5 23.Rxe8 Rxe8 24.Rxe8+ Qxe8 25.Qe2 Qb8 26.Nxh5 Qxb4 27.Nxg7 Kxg7 28.Qe7+ Kg6 29.h4 Qxa4 30.Be2 Qa3 31.h5+ Kh6 32.Qxf6+ Kh7 33.Qe7+ Kh6 34.Qd6+ and Black resigned. |
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| May-14-13 | | waustad: As much as I root for Norwegian chess, I suspect that the best moves they could make to make major tournaments be the world class events they desire would be:
1.) Get Simen Agdestein out of the broadcast. At least during the Olympiad he'll probably be playing, but his greatest skill that he's shown as an announcer has been to anger the World Champion. His announcing has been amateurish at best.
2.) Make sure that you have enough hardware/bandwith to handle the traffic. Today during Carlsen vs Radjabov, 2013 it wasn't even close. Please try to make sure that doesn't happen in Tromsø. |
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| May-15-13 | | pbercker: I wouldn't be too harsh on Simen Agdestein. Apart from that awkward moment with Anand, the rest (at least that I have seen) is largely competent and even interesting. He has lots of interesting and amusing anecdotes. Moreover his analysis of ongoing games I thought was generally quite good and perceptive and helped the viewer better understand what was going on. As for the bandwidth, today really was very spotty. |
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| May-15-13 | | bravado1: The analysis is OK. In general, they seem to "read the games" better than IM Trent who constantly repeated "what???", "I have no idea what's going on", etc. during the Candidates Tournament in London. Yet, when it comes to pure entertainment, anecdotes, the "sparkle" of live broadcast, sense of humour and the right expression of the tension in the games, then Trent and Short are miles ahead. My impressions from a person who is not particualrly interested in chess (as most of the viewers probably are) is that the commentary is simply boring. And, apparently, the idea behind the broadcast was to make chess popular in Norway. |
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May-15-13
 | | OhioChessFan: From the Norway Tournament's website:
Question:
In his rich career Simen Agdestein has faced many opponents of varying strength. How many World Champions did he beat? (Not necessarily when they were champions) And do you know their names? Answer:
Simen Agdestein defeated four World Champions: Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov and Veselin Topalov. |
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