2/3/2023 – Inspired by her months of lonely forest trips in the north of Scandinavia German actress and singer has launched a new album of 14 songs, in the style of German pop, cine-classic and Nordic noir. It is music into which everything from love, laughter, separation and death flows. So what is the chess connection: well Vaile is an enthusiastic amateur who has met and interacted with many of the world's top players. She has even taken part in Chess Boxing!
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Vaile, who like Cher and Madonna uses only one name, is a singer and actor – not a starlet but a fully trained actress who attended drama school in Hamburg and New York. She has a high level of classical education and very outspoken opinions on relevant subjects, from theatre to film to sitcoms to music.
Vaile is also an avid chess enthusiast, who in 2006 played an exhibition game against Levon Aronian. She has also met many of the great chess players and participated in events with them.
This is Vaile in 2007, gracing an event honouring Viktor Korchnoi. In this picture we see her with Petra Korchnoi grandmaster Lothar Schmid, the arbiter of many top chess events (e.g. Fischer-Spassky, Reykjavik 1972). It was remarkable to know that both Lothar and Petra were eighty. That became everyone's new goal: to be like these two when we reach that age.
This is Vera Spillner, quantum physicist, polyglot and violinist with Vaile, at the Anand-Kramnik World Championship in Bonn.
There is one more connection between Vaile and chess. She improbably became involved in...
...chess boxing! Above we see her playing the inventor of Chessboxing Iepe Rubingh in Berlin.
This astonishing young lady is not just a singer and actress (and chess boxer and deep sea diver, and a number of other things). Once a year Vaile sets out with two horses on a trip into the Scandinavian forests, to spend six weeks alone, meeting no human soul, surviving essentially on what she can dig up, pluck or catch. She has done this for ten years now, ever since she was a teenager.
When one of Germany's top publishing houses, Knauer, heard about this they commissioned her to write a book, "Frei Sein" (Being free), which was published as an illustrated top title. It is a fascinating read and can be purchased from Thalia or from Bookbeat.
Currently Vaile is releasing a new album on which many of the songs are closely connected to the horseback trips and finding freedom in the forests of the north.
Fragile
The album is called "Zerbrechlich" (which translates to Fragile or Vulnerable) and has 14 songs in the style of German pop, cine-classic and Nordic noir. It is music into which everything from love, laughter, separation and death flows, music that lets you believe in the grandeur of life and at the same time reminds you of its fragility.
Vaile has been hailed as a "great discovery" (WOM Journal) and "heiress to Tori Amos" ("Keyboards"), "fairytale-like, orchestrated, with quiet moments subtly alternating with crashing, unleashed energy." Here is the official trailer of her new album:
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.
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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.
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