Unfair play: from JK Rowling to Sharron Davies

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. No armies of wokistas demonstrating in front of the raised drawbridge 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, in true Graham Linehan style, 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.

Take, for example, the case of JK Rowling, world renowned originator of the Harry Potter books and films,  as well as the inventor of Wizard Chess. The complete sequence of the famous game, unfortunately edited in the film itself, follows:

1. Qxd3 Rc3! 2. Qxc3 Nh3+! 3. Qxh3 Bc5+ 4. Qe3 Bxe3 checkmate

Earlier this month JK herself  was 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, remains 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 tickle a sleeping Rowling”).

I seem to recall that JK once donated £1m to the Labour Party, which I find puzzling, since the Harry Potter ethos seems to both exude and laud traditional Conservative values. Harry, her hero, is quintessentially self-reliant, attends an exclusive private school, has a vast fortune stashed away in a bank run by goblins, evinces an extreme distaste for government interference in his life, while the flying car he uses would certainly not have passed any of Mayor Khan’s ULEZ tests.

In the unlikely event that JK ever notices this column, I have two questions for her. Is it possible that her magnificent creation, the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, an eccentrically attired expert in memory charms, is in any way based on my late friend Tony Buzan, the Fons et Origo of the World Memory Championships, now in their 32nd year? Further, Lockhart, brilliantly portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the movie version, is intent on publicising his new book: Magical Me! Surely there is a grand opportunity here for JK to produce that book herself, out of a hat, as it were. I am confident that in real life, as in fiction, it would be a bestseller.

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 Angela Eagle MP. The renowned female athlete has set her face against trans participation in female sport, while the chessplaying 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, certainly for at least two years.

Sharron Davies, whose new 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.

Finally, in her Twitter (X) site, the chess activist Sabrina Chevannes has declared war on all the males who, she claims, have harassed her in various ways during her chess career. Her first broadside, without mentioning any names, attracted a huge following which, by innuendo, pun and anagram, swiftly identified a celebrated English Grandmaster as the culprit, which Sabrina failed to deny, instead, rather doubling down on the accusations.

As a result, the aggrieved Grandmaster in question has resorted to M’Learned friends, while I have publicly urged Sabrina to name names. Keeping her audience in suspense is unfair to the blameless majority of UK Grandmasters, several of whom now fall under suspicion. Watch this space for further developments.

While on the topic of M’Learned Friends, the case between Carlsen and Niemann  rumbles on.

Since accusations against Niemann were not withdrawn and exclusions from websites not dropped, Niemann resorted to the law to clear his name. Usually actually invoking the law in such cases acts as acid and dissolves the injustice. I hear, for example, that the Oxford University educated lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaac, has recently won a reputedly million dollar lawsuit out of court settlement against Netflix for libelling the former women’s world champion Nona Gaprindashvili. The Netflix TV series The Queen’s Gambit wrongly claimed that she had never competed against male grandmasters. This was glaringly inaccurate, as I can personally testify from the game Keene vs. Gaprindashvili, Dortmund 1978.

Who cheated and who didn’t? Who made substantiated allegations and who is just a sore loser? The matter may ultimately lie for resolution in the more than capable legal skills of an Oxford University graduate in Jurisprudence. Certainly Niemann’s current legal team have made scant progress and the first bout of legal proceedings ended in Carlsen’s favour last month. Niemann is said to be appealing, but before he commits to expensive further action I have a modest proposal. I would advise him to study the admonitory words from Jonathan Swift’s imperishable satire, Gulliver’s Travels.

“I [Gulliver] said, ‘there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves. For example, if my neighbour has a mind to my cow, he has a lawyer to prove that he ought to have my cow from me. I must then hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed to speak for himself.

‘Now, in this case, I, who am the right owner, lie under two great disadvantages: first, my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great awkwardness, if not with ill-will.

‘The second disadvantage is, that my lawyer must proceed with great caution, or else he will be reprimanded by the judges, and abhorred by his brethren, as one that would lessen the practice of the law.

‘And therefore I have but two methods to preserve my cow. The first is, to gain over my adversary’s lawyer with a double fee, who will then betray his client by insinuating that he hath justice on his side. The second way is for my lawyer to make my cause appear as unjust as he can, by allowing the cow to belong to my adversary: and this, if it be skilfully done, will certainly bespeak the favour of the bench.’”

Let us hope that Niemann can do better than that in his final choice of advocates.

Latest news on the home front, Grandmaster Michael Adams has just won the British Championship for the 8th time and is approaching the all-time record held by the late Dr Jonathan Penrose. This is widely reckoned  to be ten wreaths of laurel, but I regard it as eleven, since it’s my strong belief that the name of the notorious paedophile, Brian Eley, should no longer besmirch the magnificent championship trophy for the year 1972 and should be replaced by Dr Penrose and myself. In general I am a fierce opponent of rewriting history, but in Eley’s case, adopting the precedent for erasing the name of Jimmy Savile from any roll of honour, I am eager to make an exception.

Our game link this week is a crunching win by Adams against Steven Jones from the 2023 British Championship.

Raymond Keene’s  book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from  Blackwell’s . Meanwhile, Ray’s 206th book, “Chess in the Year of the King”, with a foreword by The Article contributor Patrick Heren, and written in collaboration with former Reuters chess correspondent, Adam Black, has just appeared and is also available from the same source or from Amazon

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a donation.