Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Communist quiz

More from Ray.

Questions arising:
  1. The present women's world champion is Chinese, the fifth person of her nationality to hold that title. How did they manage to overcome the collectivist nature of their culture to achieve these heights?
  2. Can anybody think of any countries whose "communist tradition" failed to stop them doing rather well where world titles in chess were concerned?
  3. Why does this drivel get published?


Anonymous said...

So there hasn't been an Indian world champion, Ray??

Jack Rudd said...

Here's a handy list of world champions who *weren't* born in places that were at some point part of Communist countries:

Max Euwe
Bobby Fischer
Vishy Anand
Magnus Carlsen

Andrew Gelman said...


The Netherlands, India, and Norway are kinda socialist, right? Fischer's the only one to come from a full-on, winner-take-all capitalist country.

Actually, the U.K. is kinda socialist too---maybe that explains why Ray never made it to the top: he, Nigel Short, etc. were too busy helping out others and sharing the wealth; they didn't have the capitalist single-mindedness necessary to excel as individuals.

Anonymous said...

I assume the above post was in jest, but just for the record India has been run by rightwing nationalists for a while now. As for the UK - Thatcher, May, Cameron, even Blair??