Dear Taylor Kingston,

It occurred to me that most people interested in chess have no idea what its
actually like operating as a chess journalist and reviewer, and I thought
that it might be interesting for everyone reading here for me to interview
you.

I am practiced at this sort of thing, having interviewed the high and
mighty, and wonder if you would trust me to interview you in r.g.c.m., in 20
question format [actually, 22 questions, you can pass on two of them] with a
general orientation as above.

God knows, these threads are often threadbare enough, and bereft of any
sense that it is people who play chess and also people who comment on it,
rather than machines or the Gods themselves. Not quite a tautology, but an
unfortunate emphasis made necessary by our perhaps rather strange and mutual
enthusiasm for an activity which comprises as an art form a completely
non-verbal form of ritual aggression.

This ritual formulation of contact is often transformed into actual verbal
aggression, which is certainly understandable considering our
counter-punching nature as chess players, however we behave in ordinary
life, but continues unhappily as a species of transference from one art-form
to another. Consequently, chess writers of some establishment are
ill-perceived, no?

In other words, we all want not deflate the writer, and colloquially 'take
the ****.'

Some people perhaps suspect that chess writers and reviewers are
psychologically of some other species, not subject to ordinary factors of
urbis et orbis, and are of such rarified matter [derogative sense] as should
only receive scorn - this a [negative] projection of their own ambition or
projection of 'what it must be like'?

So whadya think? All questions will be writ fair and square here in public,
and not as damn convoluted as that written above, besides which, you can
choose to respond at your leisure, notwithstanding the fact that its going
to snow on both of us for the next 3 days here in Vermont, and what the
heck!

Cordially, Phil Innes

So whadya think? All questions will be writ fair and square here in
public... Phil Innes

Dear Phil,

I think a bunch of fair and square questions would be an insult to
your subject. There should be at least some questions that are vicious and
unpleasant to answer. I can think of a few.

__________________________________________________ ______________
"FIDE has made its decision. Players who refuse to be drug tested will not be
able to play chess." -- Dr. Press, co-founder of the FIDE Medical Commission.

Dear Abby,

How do I make Kramnik play against me for the World Championship in Chess?

Kasparov

"Parrthenon" wrote in message
...
So whadya think? All questions will be writ fair and square here in
public... Phil Innes

Dear Phil,

I think a bunch of fair and square questions would be an insult to
your subject. There should be at least some questions that are vicious
and
unpleasant to answer. I can think of a few.

Dear Lawrence, but that is not how one lure's someone into an interview! And
I think - frankly - you are green with envy! I have already written the
questions, btw, and wait an invitation to post them.

This could be a whatsitcalled, a mini-series, and I could interview you
next, or simultaneously. The entire series could then be ripped off by
someone in India, published without permission or royalties in a collection
called; The RGCM Interviews, and future chess historians could google it
then argue among themselves whether these were 'the good old days' or 'the
dark ages' of public chess natter, as exampled by the bufoons who practice
it.

Since your comment is surely an inveiglement*, shall I return the compliment
and prepare some truly nasty question for you - the rules as you remember
are that 22 questions are presented and you can skip two of them without
offering a reason to do so.

I am entirely sure that there would be no subject whatever posted here from
now 'til Christams which would engage readers' attention to the same extent
as an interview with yourself.*

Cordially, Phil

*To persuade to some evil with deceptive arts and flattery.


__________________________________________________ ______________
"FIDE has made its decision. Players who refuse to be drug tested will not
be
able to play chess." -- Dr. Press, co-founder of the FIDE Medical
Commission.

"PeteCasso" wrote in message
...
Dear Abby,

How do I make Kramnik play against me for the World Championship in Chess?

Kasparov

Dear Misha,

Shoot the sheriff.

Cordially, Abby.

(Parrthenon) wrote in message ...

I think a bunch of fair and square questions would be an insult to
your subject. There should be at least some questions that are vicious and
unpleasant to answer. I can think of a few.

Aw, jeez, Larry, here we were getting along so well, or at least
avoiding hostilities, for such a long time, even agreeing on a thing
or two. Then you go and say a thing like that, spoiling the party. Now
what am I going to do with all the old magazines you edited, that I
was saving for the surprise "This Is Your (Chess) Life" party Phil and
I were planning?

Taylor

Since Larry is too shy to submit to public questioning without
encouragement, and since you dare write in a thread with your own name, I
take your response as tacit consent, encourager les autres - therefore here
are the questions, answer however you may. Remember, you can only give 20
answers, so skip any 2 questions. Phil
--------------

22 Questions for Taylor Kingston.



1) So what prompted you to start chess writing initially, as an
activity on its own merit, or towards some other goal, and after some 100
columns for www.chesscafe.com is your sense of your motivation the same as
when you started?



2) And after 100 columns writing about chess, what really cheeses
you off about it.



3) What's the most enjoyable piece you have written, and
why does it feel so?



4) Do you have a preference of type of material to comment
upon.



5) When you read here in public newsgroups, do you think
people are (a) very well informed by them (b) generally partially informed,
or (c) there is a mishmash of misleading material written by less than
studied enthusiasts?



6) Do you feel fairly rewarded for your writing in a
financial sense. That is, do you ever think you get more than minimum wage.



7) Tell us about a good squabble with an editor.



8) Could you identify one from the one hundred columns you
have written as being significantly more important in some way than the
others?



9) I believe you are an expert level player - do you feel
privileged or deprived in writing for your market as a result of your chess
rating.



10) To what extent does national chess politics impact chess
writing.



11) Now and again you have addressed international chess issues
in your writing, particularly concerning Botvinnik and Soviet-era
manipulations. What is it like researching this material, and can you
characterize your own level of confidence in the result?



12) Okay! What was the worse goof you made as a journalist.
What did you learn by the experience.



13) What was the greatest coup in a journalistic sense?



14) To what extent are you influenced by levels of feedback to
your writing?



15) Which question haven't I asked yet that you would have
liked to reply to, and what do you say to yourself about this self-posed
question.



16) What next in chess? In two years I want to . ?



17) What is the biggest surprise or revelation about the chess
scene that you have discovered by virtue of being immersed in chess -
something that you had not sufficiently appreciated before.



18) What advice would you offer someone in writing about chess,
in a similar way as you have done yourself, principally as an e-journalist.



19) What chess material do you read outside of any business or
vocational interest.



20) What do you think of chess culture in the USA compared with
chess in Europe. Would the fact of being a European have changed your own
involvement in the game, do you think.



21) What from your perspective do you see as the single most
important factor for encouraging chess culture in the USA.



22) If you were the editor of Chess Life magazine, as a print,
or a print and web entity, what significant changes would you make to the
current editorial mix of columns and means of presentation.

"Chess One" wrote in message news:IXcid.105$du1.85@trndny02...

Dear Taylor Kingston,

It occurred to me that most people interested in chess have no idea what its
actually like operating as a chess journalist and reviewer,

That's true. I know I myself have very little idea what it's like.

it might be interesting for everyone reading here for me to interview
you.

Phil, I am flattered, but that could make it seem like I actually
entertained the delusions of grandeur some allege of me. Besides, as I
told you a while back, I have retired from formal chess writing for
the time being, so I am not exactly a "hot topic." My last review, of
Don Schultz's "Fischer, Kasparov, and the Others" can be read at

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_gs..._kasparov.html

I plan no other chess-related articles for the foreseeable future.
After almost nothing but chess books for seven years straight, I want
to read something else.

Taylor Kingston

After almost nothing but chess books for seven years straight, I want
to read something else.

Dear Taylor Abby,

How do I shoot the sherrif?

Mischa

"Taylor Kingston" wrote in message
om...
"Chess One" wrote in message
news:IXcid.105$du1.85@trndny02...

Dear Taylor Kingston,

It occurred to me that most people interested in chess have no idea what
its
actually like operating as a chess journalist and reviewer,

That's true. I know I myself have very little idea what it's like.

it might be interesting for everyone reading here for me to interview
you.

Phil, I am flattered, but that could make it seem like I actually
entertained the delusions of grandeur some allege of me. Besides, as I
told you a while back, I have retired from formal chess writing for
the time being, so I am not exactly a "hot topic." My last review, of
Don Schultz's "Fischer, Kasparov, and the Others" can be read at

Dear Taylor,

O Relent!

[Just in passing, I also reviewed Don's book, and people thought it was too
terse - but your review is more so.]

And relent because I am trying to gull LP into a public interview by posing
you relatively easy questions - and more seriously, I do think being a
'hot-topic' is not necessarily such a good thing, and because of rather than
despite your reticience, you become a more interesting subject to interview
than an assortment of alternative 'DJ-chess journalists' who very certainly
have delusions of grandeur, lots of 'em grandstanding on their contact with
Greats.

So relent.

Cordially from the deep south, Phil

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_gs..._kasparov.html

I plan no other chess-related articles for the foreseeable future.
After almost nothing but chess books for seven years straight, I want
to read something else.

Taylor Kingston