So this big chess festival is unusual because you compete in four-man teams. And every team gives itself a name. And there’s a contest (voting by applause) for Best Name.
And every year a bunch of teams name themselves after 1) a current news event or 2) a current Oscar-nominated movie, typically weaving it into some lame chess pun. Tackiness and innuendo are popular.
Hence names like Dick Cheney Attack – Bird Variation (after the hunting incident), or a thousand variations on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sicilian Dragon (hardee har) and Brokeback Mountain, and Britney Spears jokes, depending on the year.
Which means that in this year, I predict the following memes will be common:
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Barack Checkmates Clinton (or vice versa, or Huckabee Mates Romney, or whatever)
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Barack-Rank Mate (I’d almost bet money somebody uses this one)
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Something about Bobby Fischer’s Endgame or Last Move.
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Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana puns (probably with outfits for the Best Promotional Gimmick contest)
Last year in the final round, we played a team named “I Don’t Care.” It was a chess coach and three teen students. The coach said in the week leading up to the tourney, he kept asking his teenage teammates what name they wanted to use ….
I proposed “Putin on the Blitz.”
My all-time favorite is “Korchnoi’s Complaints.”
-Matt
P.S. I’m leaving work right now to take a train home, then leaving from there at around 4. It’s happenin’!!
“Korchnoi’s Complaints” was brilliant. Way too highbrow to win a prize though.
My favorite use of chess lingo was “I’ll Have a Benoni Saemisch and a Caissa Falkbeer”.
My favorite team name we’ve played against was “There’s No I in Idiot”.
Has your team come up with one yet?
And, er…me no get “Korchnoi’s Complaints”. Would it be too much trouble if we plebs got an explanation?
I assume it’s a reference to the Philip Roth novel?
bravo et al! Korchnois complaints, too!
… funny, off from work–am home sick–and had a long hot back, and was adding to your post (in my head, writing the next parts: the next post about Derek, in the Proleomega Series), come to sit there, and here you are after my ‘long think’ :)
i feel the pressure to perform commensurate with your level of human essence. dk
Donnie – we’re always Simple Minds, which I like partly because it’s easy to find on the pairing sheets (which is no joke w/ 300 teams)
I hope you find time to give some USATE updates this weekend
Any crushing wins? Brilliant combinations? Any chess celebrity sightings?
Using internet is simple as hell. But I can tell y ou right now, it can be very hard, if you are the first time user.
So, first thing I suggest – open the Explorer, and type in the address you like.
You’ll get there really fast, it depends on your connection speed.
Good luck.
Hey,
I am on staff at the USATE and we were trying to remember past winning team names. I was wondering if you could help.
Thanks,
Roger Inglis
Hi Roger – I don’t think they won but three of my all-time favorites were
“I’ll have a caissa falkbeer and a benoni saemisch” and
“Britney Spears offers no draws” and
“There’s no ‘I’ in idiot”
I’ll look through my past posts and find the winners I did record. (After the tourney’s over.)