Culture wars, glass ceilings and chess

In the footsteps of Cato the Elder (who ended every speech in the Roman Senate, whatever the topic, with the exhortation:  Carthago delenda est ) I have said it before – and I will say it again. Try as I might, by promoting controversial and unfashionable pronouncements, both here in  TheArticle  and on social media, I have signally failed as yet to be cancelled, or afflicted with a midnight visit by the thought policing Myrmidons of the law: no armies of wokistas demonstrating in front of the battlements of Castle Keene, no strident  sans culottes  barricading the streets, screaming  Ray à la lanterne,  not one lecture or simultaneous display having its venue shut down by rioters. Most galling of all, perhaps, my attempts to provoke readers in my columns for  TheArticle  have resulted in regular approval ratings of over 90%. I must try harder!

This week, in a Stakhanovite effort to engender outrage, faux or otherwise, I shall enter the topic of gender wars. To misquote an ancient Indian adage about chess, this is a sea in which a gnat may sink and an elephant may drown. 

While my good friend, globally renowned artist Daniela Raytchev, has her eyes fixed resolutely on the stars, others have theirs focused on the gutter. Coincidentally, Daniela’s latest masterpiece,  Glass Ceiling (Shattered!) , is on show at the Red Eight Gallery in London’s Royal Exchange, while simultaneously so called “Valentina“ Petronilla (an utterly shameless trans man, without chivalry or honour) has been busy competing for female medals in the Paris Paralympics. 

Daniela’s  Glass Ceiling (Shattered!)  is based on a notable female chess victory against a powerful male opponent, a game which I personally recommended to her. The piece shows a crucial moment from Judit Polgar’s win against Magnus Carlsen, from a tournament in Mexico City, 2012, with pieces suspended in the air, and the dark squares of the board filled with the shattered shards of the aforesaid ceiling. 

Meanwhile in Paris, Petrillo has been determined to pull up a glass drawbridge in their wake, to prevent genuine women from gaining the medals for which they have trained so hard and so long. Along with earlier artistic efforts by Marcel Duchamp, Patrick Hughes and Barry Martin, Daniela has, thereby, created a chess-related artwork which is culturally apposite  pour nos jours.  

Take, for example, the parallel case of JK Rowling, world renowned originator of the Harry Potter books and films, as well as the inventor of  Wizard Chess.  

JK, in tacit alliance with Olympic medallist Sharron Davies, has formed a kind of duet on social media, excoriating the Olympic Committee’s perennial failures to defend female rights. Thus [Davies:  @sharrond62 ]; “the IOC have never cared about the integrity of women’s sport. They let the GDR [the former East Germany] drug their girls , starting at 11yrs old,  for 20 years! And everyone knew. They did nothing! It only stopped when the Wall came down in 1989. Some of these poor girls died – all were physically harmed.” 

And, irony alert for the unlikely event that low IQ readers are following my columns: 

Rowling [ @jk_rowling ] added, “Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on.“

JK herself has been entirely expunged from a Seattle museum exhibition, devoted to her works, by a trans director, who disapproved of her views on the unacceptability of trans men competing in female sport.  

JK, true to form, remained defiant: “ What you and your ilk fail to appreciate is how tediously familiar I find your tactics. I had a violent ex-husband who used to tell me life would be great if only I’d comply, but you’re making the same mistake he did. Women like me can’t be bullied out of resistance.”

Rowling dormiens numquam titillanda  (“Never provoke a sleeping Rowling”).

Now to the battle raging on social media between the Olympic swimmer, Sharron Davies MBE, and the 1976 U-18 British girls’ chess co-champion, Labour’s Dame Angela Eagle MP, who is now Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum. The renowned female athlete has set her face against trans participation in female sport, while the chess-playing Parliamentarian has (predictably) taken the opposite view. Sharron may rest assured. Previously FIDÉ, the world chess federation, had instituted no clear policy on trans men competing in female events. As a result, perhaps, of the increasing trend for world sports governing bodies to ban this kind of anomalous absurdity, FIDÉ have now decided to exclude non-biological women from female competition at the highest levels, for at least two years.

Sharron Davies, whose book  Unfair Play represents her fight back against sexism in the sporting world, missed out on Olympic Gold because of doping among East German athletes in the 1980s. She has never since received justice, in spite of the admission of guilt by the East German swimmer, Petra Schneider. By rights, if she had any vestige of honour, Ms Schneider would offer her medal to Ms Davies.

The description of her book’s substance, the link to which is above, is well-captured on the Amazon site (to whom, our thanks):

“Now, biological males are being allowed to compete directly against women under the disguise of trans ‘self-ID’, a development that could destroy the integrity of female sport and undermine the morale of female athletes. This callous indifference towards women in sport,” argue Sharron and her co-author, the journalist Craig Lord, “is merely the latest stage in a decades-long history of sexism on the part of sport’s higher-ups.

“A strong fightback is required to root out the lingering misogyny that plagues sporting governance, media coverage and popular perceptions. This book provides the facts, science and arguments that will help women in sport get the justice they deserve.”

Gratifying though it is that FIDÉ have made the right decision, they have done so for the wrong reasons and thus given the braying legion of Wokistas a chance to shoot back. Possible disadvantaging of  female chess players is the FIDÉ justification — which is, of course, a veiled insult against women players in a mind sport such as chess. No, the reason should be that trans entrants should play in Open tournaments, for which there is no bar, and they have no more right to compete in female events than would little green furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

Red Eight Gallery, which is exhibiting Daniela Raytchev’s most topical piece, was founded with a vision to showcase some of the art world’s most exciting emerging contemporary artists alongside more established creatives and blue chip artists. One of the most satisfying aspects of their work is the thrill of discovering new talent whose pieces can represent an excellent investment for collectors thanks to their potential to significantly increase in value.

“Glass Ceiling” is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that keeps a certain demographic (typically applied to women or minorities) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. The  Glass Ceiling (Shattered!)  installation by Daniela Raytchev is a metaphor for women breaking through the social barriers and limitations and a celebration of the feminist movements  MeToo  and  timesup . The piece consists of a broken glass chess board with the chess pieces floating above the board; pink pieces represent women and face the white spiked pieces referencing white male supremacy. The chess pieces are set according to the decisive move in a 2012 rapid game between Magnus Carlsen and Judit Polgar (see below), capturing the very move that defined Polgar’s victory. Polgar is a chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. 

As well as painting, Raytchev started to bring sculpture into her bodies of work and created several art chess sets. These were extremely powerful and expressed in totality how broken, yet strong, the human mind can be, as well as communicating a sense of hope for the future, as shown in the image. This piece has been recently on loan at the World Chess Hall of Fame museum in St. Louis.

White: Magnus Carlsen
Black: Judit Polgar 
Second Gran Fiesta, Mexico City 2012
King’s Indian Defence

1.Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. d4 0-0 6. h3 e5 7.d5 Na6 8. Be3 Qe8 9. g4 Nc5 10. Nd2 a5 
White has employed an ambitious strategy against the King’s Indian Defence. 

11.Be2 c6 12. Rg1 Kh8 13. h4 Ng8 14. Qc2 Bd7 15. 0-0-0 cxd5 16. Nxd5 Ne6 17. h5 g5 18. Kb1 Ba4 19. b3 Bc6

Black’s bishop manoeuvre was designed to provoke a slight rupture in the pawn shield around the white king.

20.Nb6 Rd8 21. Qc3 Nf4 22. Bf1 h6 23. Qxa5
The kingside has become blockaded and White has made gains on the other wing. However, Black’s knight on f4 is dominant and any attempt to remove it by Bxf4 at some stage would fail to …exf4 releasing the dark-squared bishop.

23… f5 

A bold stroke intending after  24. exf5  to continue at some point with …e4 again releasing Black’s powerful dark-squared bishop.

24.gxf5 Qxh5 25. Re1 Nf6 26. Nd5 Ra8 27. Qb4 Rfd8 28. f3 
A blunder, missing a tactic.

28… Qh4 

  The key blow which gives rise to the depiction in Daniela’s artwork, currently predicted to sell for £30,000. Not many single chess moves can aspire to be valued at that exalted level of munificence. 

 29. Rc1 Bxd5 30. cxd5 N4xd5 
White cannot play  31. exd5  on account of  31… Qxb4 .

31 Bxg5 Qxg5 32. Rxg5 Nxb4 33. Rg2 d5 34. exd5 Nfxd5 35. Ne4 Ne3 36. f6 Bf8 37. Rh2 Rac8 38. Bc4 Nxc4 39. bxc4 Kg8 40. Rb2 Rc7 41. c5 Nd3 42. Rd2 Rcd7 43. c6 bxc6 44.Rxc6 Kf7 45. Rb6 Nc5 46. Rxd7+ Rxd7 47. Nf2 h5 48. Rc6 Rd2 49. Nh3 Ne6 50. a4 Rh2  White resigns 0-1

My thanks to Richard Brierley of Red Eight Gallery for information about the Gallery and insights into the art of Daniela Raytchev. 

Ray’s 206th book, “  Chess in the Year of the King  ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “  Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius  ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) are available from Amazon and Blackwells. 

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