3/22/2015 – Remember our recent article on a clandestine effort to recruit top players from other countries to switch their allegiance to the United States, to help win team championships like the Chess Olympiad? Well, Comedy Central's inimitable Jon Stewart picked up on the New York Times report and did a five minute sketch on chess, one that is simultaneously insulting and funny.
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Daily Show is an American late-night talk and news satire television program which airs on Comedy Central. The host is Jon Stewart, who started up as a stand-up comedian, but branched into television and took over The Daily Show 1999, making it more strongly focused on politics and the national media. It describes itself as a fake news program and draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures and media organizations. The Daily Show has won 18 Primetime Emmy Awards.
The show typically opens with a long monologue from Jon Stewart relating to recent headlines and frequently features exchanges with one or more of several correspondents, who adopt absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against Stewart's straight man persona. In Friday night's show they picked up the news that a clandestine effort was under way to recruit top players from other countries to switch their allegiance to the United States – see our report from last week:
The Daily Show – Chess News Roundup
"This week in chess America is making a concerted effort to buy top foreign chess players in an attempt to win next year's Chess Olympiad gold medal, something it has not done in decades" Stewart says. "The United States is buying up nerds! Nerd mercenaries – nerdcenaries." He turns to his "senior correspondent" Trevor Noah, who patiently explains to Stewart what is going on.
Of course the show cannot resist poking fun at the stereotype allegation that chess is boring – but at least with the clever line: "I did not realize how boring chess was until someone else started talking about it." It is hard not to laugh an exchange, towards the end, where a chessboard floats down and the two start a game:
"Because I'm white I'll go first," says Trevor Noah. Jon Stewart does his trademark long baffled look and then replies: "All right, I guess 'cause I'm Jewish I'll go second?!"
Eagle eyed readers have bound to have spotted it already. It is our long held theory that there is a certain malicious advisor who offers his service as a "chess expert" to all TV shows and film productions, and then makes sure that the board is always set up the wrong way. The number of times this occurs cannot be attributed to pure chance.
Magnus Carlsen on the Colbert report
In our blurb spoke of "the inimitable Jon Stewart". That is not strictly accurate. A number of his "senior correspondents" have gone on to make their own shows, in a similar format – most recently John Oliver with Last Week Tonight on HBO. The late-night talk and news satire television program The Colbert Report aired on Comedy Central from October 2005 to December 2014 with a total of 1,447 episodes. The following one is memorable:
Three years ago Magnus Carlsen was invited to the Colbert Report. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert who is a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot." You can read our report on the above segment here. In addition we finally succumb to temptation:
We have long resisted publishing this fairly crude impersonation – but you have probably seen it elsewhere
Frederic FriedelEditor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
Chess is a concrete game. There is no way around training your calculation skills. Improve your visualization, pattern recognition and learn calculation techniques such as reciprocal thinking with this course.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
What makes 2.b3 so attractive is that it's aggressive and positional at the same time.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
