December 23, 2010
Labour MP Angela Eagles suggested today (on Woman's Hour - Guru believes in aural equality) - that she still uses skills learned becoming a chess champion in her daily life.
Perhaps this idea might have some merit in the marbled halls of Westminster, where rules abound and there are knights in every cubby hole, but Yours Truly really wonders how useful moving two steps forward and one to the left could possibly help in the real world.
While those in control of the game - King David stays firmly where he is, Queen Clegg rushes about in an unprincipled way killing off any integrity the Liberals ever had, and George Osborne is the Rook who steps in to take the flak when Dave summons him - are on the board, as it were, with all the privileges of actually being on the table, most people aren't even in the box, let alone in the game.
Having said that, British Rail, the health service, the armed forces, the police force all seem to take one step forward and two steps back, which seems like a chess move - just not one anyone recognises.
And there's also no piece to represent the stumbling along half a pace and falling over seemingly popular with many youngsters on a Saturday evening.
Bishops, meanwhile, do actually glide in diagonals and never approach a subject head on, which could explain why the Church of England has been tonked off the board by the unbelievers and the Muslims.
With it being Woman's Hour, however, host Jenny Murray inevitably brought the subject around to equality, highlighting the fact that so few women ever make it to the top in chess and the fact that no female has been crowned world champion. And in that, chess does reflect reality. As Ms Eagles kept pointing out - her brain was not big enough to succeed on account of her being a woman (something Guru and many other boffins have been pointing out for years).
Yours Truly would suggest to Ms Eagles that a more appropriate game to use in the daily struggle to get bread on the table would be Jenga. Just when you think everything's stacking up nicely, it all comes crashing down - much more like reality for the majority.
Perhaps this idea might have some merit in the marbled halls of Westminster, where rules abound and there are knights in every cubby hole, but Yours Truly really wonders how useful moving two steps forward and one to the left could possibly help in the real world.
While those in control of the game - King David stays firmly where he is, Queen Clegg rushes about in an unprincipled way killing off any integrity the Liberals ever had, and George Osborne is the Rook who steps in to take the flak when Dave summons him - are on the board, as it were, with all the privileges of actually being on the table, most people aren't even in the box, let alone in the game.
Having said that, British Rail, the health service, the armed forces, the police force all seem to take one step forward and two steps back, which seems like a chess move - just not one anyone recognises.
And there's also no piece to represent the stumbling along half a pace and falling over seemingly popular with many youngsters on a Saturday evening.
Bishops, meanwhile, do actually glide in diagonals and never approach a subject head on, which could explain why the Church of England has been tonked off the board by the unbelievers and the Muslims.
With it being Woman's Hour, however, host Jenny Murray inevitably brought the subject around to equality, highlighting the fact that so few women ever make it to the top in chess and the fact that no female has been crowned world champion. And in that, chess does reflect reality. As Ms Eagles kept pointing out - her brain was not big enough to succeed on account of her being a woman (something Guru and many other boffins have been pointing out for years).
Yours Truly would suggest to Ms Eagles that a more appropriate game to use in the daily struggle to get bread on the table would be Jenga. Just when you think everything's stacking up nicely, it all comes crashing down - much more like reality for the majority. 
Guru's Tweets