46 responses to “Svidler: “The circus is travelling to Khanty””

  1. For the lack of a special thread on Svidler’s World Cup 2011 performance, I will comment here. His press conference after the second win over Kamsky (it is still replayable on the official site) is a treasure. The presence of a Russian-to-English interpreter is hilarious. At one point Svidler answers in English a question posed in Russian and the poor interpreter translates it into Russian.

    My personal award goes to Svidler’s phrase “I always tend to think I am lucky if I win”. Quite different than what I got used to on this side of Atlantic :(

  2. LOL

  3. Mainly for mishanp: Have you heard the Polish saying “Przyslowia sa madroscia narodow, ktore innej madrosci nie maja.”? (“Folk proverbs are the wisdom of nations that lack other wisdom.”)

  4. colin, that was too awesome to just be a comment…..

  5. yes… thankfully i grasped those points even without knowing russian.
    that lady sucks.

    are the players under contractual obligation for the conference? if not, i would have expected them to correct major mistakes (like chucky tried for the “exxchange”… or maybe he decided after that that there’s no point talking to the lady)

  6. till day before yesteday, one camera’s angle was such that you could see board, players and clock times. since yesterday that camera’s now focused only on board and clock; the players are not visible. Great pity, as it was fun watching gashimov-pono when gash thought he blundered in the end.. one could really feel for poor gashi.

    can someone (you :)) tell the organisers to change the camera angle back?

  7. Svidler’s face during the lady’s translation spoke volumes…. expecting some fun stuff from you (can’t believe she said “difficult” for “rhetorical”….)

  8. another issue with the camera angle is that the Chessbase analysis board hides almost a quarter of the real board. hope the commentators revert…

  9. colin, i’ve been reading whychess for many days now; I must say that you bring a distinctive, much-needed, new flavor to english chess-news reporting.
    (It’s particularly marked by including snippets from other interviews/articles into a cohesive news report for one incident, the latest e.g. is Tkachiev’s quote in the semifinal report.)

    Keep up the good work…. must say whychess is helping me get over the death of this site now….

  10. They can’t get Svidler as a interpreter, but perhaps mishanp? is there any way you can find out who is the lady? Don’t ask why but I am just a little curious :P

  11. whatever we think of the lady, i do think it’s abnormal (if not downright impolite) that the player and questioner always get up and leave before she’s finished translating the concluding remarks.

    i was wondering about the lucky part…. thanks for pointing out the “only”

    All these players (not sure about pono) have very good english; why do we need the lady at all?

  12. fantastic report on semi tiebreak (photo with 3 secs on Grischuk!!).

    one small wrinkle… maybe u shudve mentioned (even though other news sites have) that if not for Bc1, white would be mated.

  13. Chess as sport: I’ve always thought, like many others, that chess is a sport since it’s quite demanding and competitive…. but now I see why it’s not really a sport…
    A sport (in my new definition of the word) has to be something that has to be seen to be enjoyed/appreciated.
    A chess game can simply written on a piece of paper to adequately enjoy it – in this sense it stands alongside art and science, but definitely not sport. (I’ve not read this point elsewhere, so sorry if it’s banal, and i’m only poorly read.)

    Video coverage (like in the world cup) goes some way in making it look like a sport…. but based on above definition, I’m satisified that it can never make it to the level of other sports.

    ——-
    this leads to some ideas for publicity as a sport:

    Team championships have a better sporting feel; we can have better commentary, many games at the same time to comment on etc…

    Also, FIDE should leverage such coverage as in the world cup to pubilicise the game…. we have clear figures for how many people visited from around the world; I’m sure corporates, if they become aware, would pay money for a logo on the background or, god forbid, advertisements!!
    —–
    and i’m writing this crap here, because this is where you’ve not denied me permission to crap -:) (yet)

  14. mishanp is too humble :)

    anyway for non-Russian speakers who don’t know any better, one interpreter is as good as any. An accurate text transcript of the press conference, that would be more useful.

    I’m not sure if there are many Anglophiles like Svidler among the players, but some like Navara have been very helpful to respond in both languages, which is commendable

  15. grischuk needs to wear high raise jeans atleast for this final….

  16. The finals day 1 report was the best so far…. you’re still improving, which is great!

    “series of moves that were like the convulsions of a dying animal”.. cool literary touch…. (but don’t overdo it as you improve)

    and a correct prediction at the end as well.
    looks like you’re gonna be a hardcore chess journalist; yea!!!

  17. i’ve seen interpreters before, and this one is the worst by far, so far….

    i’ve seen interpreters in other sports; and even spiritual discourses (english-russian, telugu-english) interpreted on the fly being done smoothly.

    she’s just not comfy enough with either english or russian, or is simply dumber than usual.

  18. I’d thought Grischuk’s sprinter analogy was a good one…. but there’s a flaw: when he’s down to seconds and his opponent has an hour (for 20 moves), it ain’t like a sprint; Grischuk has to wait for 15 minutes or more at times when the opponent’s thinking. (And he can’t move, go to the loo, even take a walk for over an hour!!).

    I think it’s like a sprint only if the opponent has maybe 15 minutes when he’s down to seconds (for 20 moves to go).

    So… his time trouble’s still a mystery; an adrenaline rush based concentration can’t last over an hour.

  19. the lady who did pono-chucky conf seemed better….. was she?

  20. awaiting you translation of svidler’s analysis in press conf.

  21. aronian’s golden treasury…..

    abrupt end though; kinda like when you’re eating delicious ice-cream in the dark and your spoon comes out empty suddenly. not nice, you know…

    ” I think at some point I’ll managed to achieve that.”

  22. this is plain ridiculous. you’d said a few days ago (somehwere around here) that you’ll have some more articles. Nothing yet…. me angry. :)

    Should i stop checking here daily? Do let us know if you’re starting to forget this site, so that we can start forgetting it too.

  23. did you do the grischuk one on whychess?? nice job!

  24. that’s some incredible reporting you’re doing for the ETCC… best quality reports I’ve seen in quite some time.

    hope your stuff gets recognised… any idea on how many hits? is your stuff getting good readership?

  25. Did u forget Grischuk part 2 (on world cup)?

  26. yea!!! your report was mentioned in the TWIC headline of tal rd1. time for a toast!!

  27. “though he spent a while savouring the novel experience of having a better position at the Tal Memorial”
    Classic journalism !!

  28. you did grischuk 2 !! yea! (had given up hopes)

  29. Kramnik on Tsesh…. sigh! what can one say…. it moved me to tears.

    probably your most significant translation so far.

  30. hey buddy u ok? no updates on whychess as well…

  31. Just when whychess has become my daily landing point….the plug is being pulled?
    This sucks !
    So what do we do…..oh well will be checking CIT now i guess…..

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