NY City Chess Mom recently brought to my attention about chess and celebrities. Here is one from Sting: “I have six children, and I’ve always encouraged all of them to play chess,” Sting said. “I think it helps to sort the brain out. You do this first and then you’ll do that and you’ll do that. It’s a very good discipline to learn for a young mind — hasn’t helped me much,” he joked, “but my children… I think it’s good.”
Some other big name celebrities playing chess:
Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie (who have taken chess lessons) are the best-known celebrities. But a surprising number of famous names enjoy the game: former world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis; Andrew Flintoff, the superstar of English cricket, who used to play chess for Lancashire; former snooker world champion Steve Davis; and pop stars Bono, Moby and Sting.
Interesting tidbids:
· Madonna plays chess in two of her music videos
· U2 frontman Bono said: “At 12 I studied the grandmasters, and I was fascinated”
· World boxing champion Lennox Lewis was said to play chess as part of his build-up to bouts.
· Sting and his band played a charity match in New York in 2000.
· Jude Law was a keen player at primary school.
Here is a discussion between Bono and Bob Dylan.
The Beatles played chess as well while recording “The white album”.
There is a great discussion/interview between Bono and Bob Dylan in which they discuss their love of chess among other things.
http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interw/84-jul8.htm
‘In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.’
Dylan Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Willie Nelson also plays chess on the road.
Using smoke as a tactic like Lasker takes on a whole new meaning when your playing against Willie on his bus.
I’ve seen some reports that the lead dancer for the original Riverdance might possibly be a chess master. In any event his rating is VERY good.
12601431: MICHAEL FLATLEY
There are a total of 6 Rating Supplement entries for this player since Jan. 1, 1990.
Source Regular
Rating Quick
Rating Notes
1994-12 2262 —
1994-06 2262 —
1994-04 2262 —
1994-02 2203 —
1993-12 2113 —
1993-10 1914 (P07) —
The late entertaining legend Ray Charles loved to play chess (using a chess board for blind players).
Some of the professional hockey players are good chess players…I think one of the best recently retired: Igor Larionov of the former USSR and later Russian Hockey Teams who was also a NHL champion as a Detroit Red Wing.
Actor/comedian Robin Williams is a big chess supporter.
The list goes on and on.
That Dylan/Bono interveiw is amazing. Especially since I love music even more than chess.
I found the discussion about the… “Irish musical scale having no roots in Europe whatsoever facinating, rather it comes from Africa and India. The Cartesian people, the Egyptian people, what gave them supremacy in the Middle East was the sail they developed. I forget what they call it, I forget the name of the sail, but this sail allowed them to become successful sea farers and traders and they dominated as a result of their reading, and that same sail which was used on those boats, is used on the West of Ireland.
Dylan: Is that right?
Bono: Bob Quinn made a film called Atlanteans in which this theory was elaborated. He suggests that the book of Kells, which is a manuscript, part of it has it’s roots in Coptic script, not in Europe. It’s not a European thing at all – it’s linked from Africa, Spain, Brittany and Ireland, because that was a sea route.”
It really adds to my studies on Irish tempered scale and explains my facination with its sound . Thanks very much, one more subject on my list of things to google.
Interestingly Hungarian music which also has my soul has non-European roots as well.
Bob Dylan photo playing chess.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is also a keen chess player:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1235
Humphrey Bogie was also a chess player…