What Are You Paying For in a $300 Chess Set? Mostly the Knights (nytimes.com) 126
If you bought a wooden chess set after watching "The Queen's Gambit," the price you paid was most likely dictated by just four pieces. From a report: The knights alone can account for as much as 50 percent of the cost of a nice wooden set. While the rest of the pieces can be machine-made, the knights are carved by hand to resemble the head of a horse, a tedious process to make sure all four are exactly the same. The knights in the set used in World Chess Championship matches ($310 for the pieces and $220 for the board) were inspired by a horse carving from the Parthenon in Athens, said Ilya Merenzon, the chief executive of World Chess, the company that licenses the rights to the matches. The process of creating the set when it was redesigned in 2013 required extensive back-and-forth communication with carvers in India to discuss minutiae like the horse's smile. About 10 people specialize in carving knights for the World Chess sets, Mr. Merenzon said. It takes about two weeks to produce 100 sets, with a set of knights requiring about six hours to carve, he said. Chess sales spiked 125 percent after the October premiere of "The Queen's Gambit," a Netflix show about an orphaned chess prodigy, Beth Harmon, who crushes the male-dominated game. Many sets sold out before Christmas.
The House of Staunton in Alabama, one of the world's largest chess retailers, offers wooden sets with relatively simple knights, such as the $129 tournament-style set in boxwood and rosewood, as well as sets with more detail. They go all the way up to a luxurious $5,995 set in "antiqued" boxwood and ebony and featuring intricate horses. In the higher-end sets, "you can literally see the teeth carved into the horse's mouth," said Noelle Kendrick, the House of Staunton's business development director. "They are extremely detailed. You can see the mane, the rivets of the mane, if it has a flowing mane." The ornamentation isn't strictly decorative. In tournament play, milliseconds matter, and so does how a piece fits into your hand, Mr. Merenzon said. This is particularly true in the especially fast-paced games that can be used to break ties at tournaments: "blitz"-style games, which generally last less than 10 minutes, and "rapid" games, in which players have 25 minutes to make all their moves. The players tend to move their pieces and press their clock in one swift motion.
The House of Staunton in Alabama, one of the world's largest chess retailers, offers wooden sets with relatively simple knights, such as the $129 tournament-style set in boxwood and rosewood, as well as sets with more detail. They go all the way up to a luxurious $5,995 set in "antiqued" boxwood and ebony and featuring intricate horses. In the higher-end sets, "you can literally see the teeth carved into the horse's mouth," said Noelle Kendrick, the House of Staunton's business development director. "They are extremely detailed. You can see the mane, the rivets of the mane, if it has a flowing mane." The ornamentation isn't strictly decorative. In tournament play, milliseconds matter, and so does how a piece fits into your hand, Mr. Merenzon said. This is particularly true in the especially fast-paced games that can be used to break ties at tournaments: "blitz"-style games, which generally last less than 10 minutes, and "rapid" games, in which players have 25 minutes to make all their moves. The players tend to move their pieces and press their clock in one swift motion.
Poor Chinese kids perhaps (Score:2, Interesting)
A simple mill can do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps people in India are less expensive per hour than an hour on a multi-axis mill? Still surprised they don't take a hybrid approach. Rough it in with a mill. Finish it by hand. It would be easier if the major/rough cuts are all in the same place each time to get the details symmetrical/repeatable.
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That model clearly still need finishing after the machining.
Re:Poor Chinese kids perhaps (Score:5, Insightful)
Over an hour on an expensive mill, tool changes, and still needs a finishing stage. Not very conducive to mass production.
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If you want to mass-produce chess pieces, you make them with injection-molded plastic.
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Turn the wood into pulp, mix with resin, and 3D print the pieces.
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At that point, you might as well just injection-mold plastic (and that's what they do for sets at that price range).
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Re:Poor Chinese kids perhaps (Score:5, Interesting)
But then if you go watch some youtube videos about chess piece making, everyone is doing 99% of the forming in a lathe.
Now, obviously a lathe would be just about the worst tool choice for the knights.
I can think of a dozen different cutting and grinding machines that would all be useful for the knights, in the same way that the lathe is useful for the other pieces.
I guess once you have a lathe, everything becomes a surface of revolution....
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Now, obviously a lathe would be just about the worst tool choice for the knights.
Except for the base.
I can think of a dozen different cutting and grinding machines that would all be useful for the knights
Such as? Bear in mind we're talking about wood, not metal. Grinders and wood are not a great mix. You can abrade wood with a grinder, but they're not ideally suited.
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You can't both know about machining, and think the knight was done on a spinning lathe.
These are not compatible claims.
You also didn't include in your analysis the a priori detail that these are the commercially successful methods determined by a competitive marketplace.
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You can't both know about machining, and think the knight was done on a spinning lathe.
You cant have both read my message and come to this conclusion about the state of my knowledge.
So one of us is pretending. Its you. You pretended to read what you replied to, because you wanted to say a thing, a thing contrary to what you would have read, which is why you make a habit of pretending to know things, a habit of being a dishonest fucking fuck. Thats you. A dishonest fucking fuck. I see your heart. Fucker.
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You can't both know about machining, and think the knight was done on a spinning lathe.
You cant have both read my message and come to this conclusion about the state of my knowledge.
So one of us is pretending. Its you. You pretended to read what you replied to, because you wanted to say a thing, a thing contrary to what you would have read, which is why you make a habit of pretending to know things, a habit of being a dishonest fucking fuck. Thats you. A dishonest fucking fuck. I see your heart. Fucker.
Dude, I'm rated over 2000, shut your stupid idiot mouth. You don't even comprehend how chess pieces are made.
There is no bluffing that lets that carving on a chess knight happen on a lathe. Do you build lathes? No. Obviously, since you don't understand what they can be used for. You talk about being a dishonest fuck... dude. Dude.
everyone is doing 99% of the forming in a lathe.
You saw some videos on youtube and didn't understand them. If you're really a machinist, you're the world's stupidest machinist and you didn't understand the videos you were watchi
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There are spherical cows, why not spherical horses? The Dallas Mavericks logo kind of does it.
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Sure, a mill will do fine, but you still need the sweat and blood of sweatshop workers to seal the wood properly.
I guess the fluid extraction can be optimized though.
Re: Poor Chinese kids perhaps (Score:2)
I suppose making the knights out of MDF or HDF would fix that, but then it's not a nice wood chess set anymore.
When I was a little kid, I got a wooden chess set for my birthday once. Every piece hand carved. The queen even had a full spiky crown, not something you could make by machine very easily. None of the pieces could be said to match, e
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Then again, injection molded plastic pieces let you play exactly the same game.
Wait, you mean a $400 knight carved from a virgin yak thigh bone won't make me play better??
Damn, I was prepared to invest big!
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Yep. Go to any chess tournament (well, go to any face-to-face chess tournament once they're holding them again) and you'll see dozens of those plastic tournment sets on vinyl boards. They're cheap, functional and durable. Easily the most expensive thing in the average participant's kit will be his chess clock.
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I have never seen a chess game - not alone a tournament - where people used plastic.
Seriously?
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When you get up to serious grandmaster stuff, you might see a lot of fancy wooden sets. But everyday tournaments full of amateurs--yeah, that'll all be plastic.
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Yes, seriously. Fancy chess exhibitions like you see on television will have fancy wood sets. Tournaments for the masses -- keep in mind that there will be hundreds of tables in play at once at the larger ones, and there will be more than one tournament taking place on the same weekend -- use whatever sets the players bring with them, and mostly that will be inexpensive plastic sets and roll-up vinyl boards because they're cheap and easy to carry.
It doesn't have to cost much. You can get a standard set of t
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use whatever sets the players bring with them, and mostly that will be inexpensive plastic
Nope, it will usually be inexpensive wood sets.
I live in Germany, no one plays with plastic sets. No idea if you even can buy one one in a shop.
set of tournament-approved
There is nothing to approve.
A chess set is 8 farmers of both sides, 2 knights, 2 bishops, two towers, a queen and a king of each colour - what would there to be "approved"?
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"I live in Germany, no one plays with plastic sets. No idea if you even can buy one one in a shop."
Apparently things are different in Germany. I've been to several tournaments here in the US and have seen only plastic sets at them.
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We have some Chess clubs here, who usually play in pubs (not at the moment due to lock down). Many pubs have 2 or more chess sets. They are all in wood.
But I remember now, now: I once had a travel chess set as a young man, a box with the pieces inside, the playing field made of steal and the pieces from plastic with magnets. But that basically was it.
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Chess tournament organizers in the US, and likely elsewhere, have regulations restricting what is an acceptable chess set for sanctioned competitive play. The intent is to make sure that recognition of the pieces and board layout is easy for everybody who plays with that set. You can play with anything you like at home, but if you bring a non-standard set to a tournament you will not be allowed to use it.
The regulations require designs that are fairly close to the traditional Staunton chess set, mandate min
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Interesting summary, thanx.
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For finish, multiple th
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https://youtu.be/4WJoR9QH12k [youtu.be]
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The times given aren't for carving it from a block of wood, that's just the time for the human carver. A machine still does the rough shaping.
Chess is my main hobby. My work is mostly firmware engineering, much of it three phase VFDs and motion control. The vast majority is related to various forms of CNC machining.
A simple mill cannot carve those details in wood without a huuge fail rate. Just the castelations in the mane will chip the wood if you're trying to use an end mill to carve it. The skill of the
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I doubt a high end chess set with hand crafted knights would come from China.
Why not? China makes tons of violins. Most of them are... well... not good. Romania used to be a big importer, bringing in cheap Chinese new violins (sorted for goodness), doing some refurb work and selling them on. These days the Chinese factories are bining them and ow they make pretty good ones too.
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I doubt a high end chess set with hand crafted knights would come from China.
True, that. It is easy to find ones carved in: India, UK, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria or Egypt.
China is all about plastic. Lots of cheap sets from China. But only a couple grades of plastic; in the 1990s, when many of the plastic chess pieces were made in the USA, there were way more mid-range models with different types of plastic, different advantages. Most of those are no longer available, and when the Chinese companies try to copy one, it gets poor reviews and doesn't sell because they don't even
So these are like Jordens (Score:2)
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China ha no child labour ...
No idea where this stupid meme comes from. made by kids in China
Just started watching that (Score:3)
Having seen the first three episodes I can see why people run out and buy chess sets. It is really great if you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it.
A few quick impressions
The older Beth Harmon is smoking hot. Focused, smart girls can be sexy as all hell. Even with that lame page-boy haircut.
Boozy older suburban women are really hard to relate to. Yet I remember them that way (I would have been 7 when the story starts).
I don't remember the guys being that good looking but whatever.
Gawd the cigarette smoke.
I wasn't aware than in 1963 in Kentucky would have both black and white girls sleeping together in the same orphanage. I had assumed Kentucky was a Confederate/segregationist state but that turns out not to be the case. Something I learned.
Another thing I should have known but didn't is that they routinely tranq-ed the girls under state care.
I would like to have seen more of the chess games but I can understand why they didn't.
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Excellent series. What really hit me was the ending. After she won the world championship and was about to fly back to the states and meet the President, she opted instead to go visit the elderly people playing chess in a park and play with them. As I understood it, that was her way to pay back the debt to her elderly chess teacher, a humble janitor, from whom she had borrowed $10 for the bus ticket to her first tournament. She never paid back the debt because he passed away in the meantime.
Respect your tea
Dropped piece (Score:2)
The article mentioned a game where one of the players knocked over their queen accidentally and thereby had to forfeit the game. I just saw the video of that incident. The opponent in that match, who was losing, lacked decency to let that go. Anyone else saw that?
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Re: Dropped piece (Score:2)
Wow that really was shady.
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If there isn't a rule against having a fistful of captured pieces, there should be.
And put a handful of queens on the table FFS. After all, they're cheap, not like knights.
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That's totally bullshit. Not just that the queen was made unavailable, but also pretending that an upturned rook declared as a queen isn't one.
I'd have just walked out of the championship at that point. Fuck their shitty cheating.
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Here's one where a person made an illegal move against the world champion [youtu.be], then blamed the champion for it (and won the game).
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lacked decency to let that go
You don't comprehend that it is a competitive sport, and touching the right piece first under time pressure is part of what they're competing at.
Imagine in basketball, we're down to the last few seconds, and I go to take my last shot to win the game and you foul me. And your fans complain that I lacked the "decency" not to overlook it and let you win! LOL Fuck that, give me my free throw and if I make it, I won fair and square.
Chess is entirely impervious to this sort of whining because there is zero ambig
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Nonsense (Score:2)
You are paying what the market price is. In this case, a market price strongly influenced by the fact that these are the "official" licensed chess sets of the World Chess Championship. There is not a linear relationship between price and cost-of-manufacture. There is a correlation, but mostly because manufacturers size their investments to match an expected market. This is true in chess boards, in computer components, in housing, in mining, ...
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Yeah but it turns out the ones where the price is what the market can bear are from the House of Staunton, with the most expensive ones carved in England.
The World Chess Championship ones are priced really, really low, they're priced at the competitive price of manufacture because they're special made according to a predetermined design that the customer is providing, there is no design value added from the manufacturer other than the limits of what their workers can carve.
FIDE, the world chess organization
What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:5, Insightful)
To freely paraphrase a famous quote (sorry I forgot who it's attributed to): it's not about strategy; it's about memorizing many famous games and game situatations. And when you've done that, you've acquired a skill that's not even useful outside the chess game itself.
Now go is a different pair of shoes... that had a lot more to do with strategy and adapting to changed conditions, having a good idea and gaining advantage from that.
But chess... honestly, play the matchbox game instead, it's easier to memorize and just about as much fun as chess to beat the uninitiated.
(Matchbox game: put 5sets of matches on the table, 1st set with 1 match, 2nd set with 2 mm matches etc. Then play: take 1 or more matches, as many as you like, buy only from a single set per move; then your opponent draws, same rules, etc. The person who is forced to take the last match off the table loses. Point is: after 20 hrs or so you can memorize all winning combinations in all situations. Much like chess, pretty much as useless, but doesn't take 20 years to master.)
Re:What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Precisely.
It's just a game. You can still see that all over rural central Asia.
Just like wine and beer are just alcoholic drinks. Their purpose is to make you drunk, and not much more. E.g. Romana generally drank it diluted, sweetened and spiced. Which would get them murdered by any modern snob, even though it clearly tastes much better.
But it takes just one loser to go "Look how much more sophisticatedererer I am, and you aren't, because you don't obey the rules I just made up, and don't pretend to prefer
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Out where you drink your booze however the hell you feel like it, we also have procedures for dealing with fancy pants losers.
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
"Look how much more sophisticatedererer I am,"
I remember some of these people. I used to take their lunch money.
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Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
It's the ultimate snobbery.
Beats even audiophile wine cellar humidors.
While being accessible to anyone.
That's all. :)
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There is a lot more to it than that. Even if you memorize a lot, you will quickly get to a position that has never been played before. Then it is on you to win. Top players can play bad openings and still win [youtube.com]. Skills like calculation matter.
If two opponents are near equal in rating, then the opening and memorization matters a lot. If they are not near equal, the better player will win.
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Don't forget, with chess the possibility space is so large that not only does it take enormous computational power and sophisticated algorithms to 'master' it well, but that ever more powerful algorithms keep getting discovered that trump the previously discovered set. (I am generalizing using a series of neural networks in a particular architecture as a more sophisticated algorithm than previous chess software that was often designed to solve the game of chess specifically)
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:3)
Yes, but still, humans playng on high level ate required to memorize a humongous amount of moves. I general, the more they memorize, the better they are. Personal skill is aost negligible to that; and to the extent to which it isn't - and this is probably the more important part of the criticism - that skill is not transferable to other disciplines in life.
At least with soccer or tennis, for example, you get some spatial orientation and physical fitness...
I think I liked the "occasional drunk time killer wi
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree with all this. Chess in no way translates to good decision-making elsewhere or being a good military general or politician or whatever other nonsense that the game is romanticized as teaching or measuring.
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No? A great deal of things like military deployment is also rote procedure. Strategy is boring, whether it's chess or invading Elbonia.
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As previously established, to 'git gud' at chess you need to memorize a lot of board situations with the correct move to make. This takes a lot of time, time you could instead be spending on things that are more directly productive.
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To freely paraphrase a famous quote (sorry I forgot who it's attributed to): it's not about strategy; it's about memorizing many famous games and game situatations. And when you've done that, you've acquired a skill that's not even useful outside the chess game itself.
Facility with chess might carry over to some other activities and not to others. I remember an experiment where grandmasters were given a few seconds to memorize a series of positions from actual games. These grandmasters were able to memorize and recall those positions with no problems. However, given the same pieces in randomized arrangements, the grandmasters were no better than average non-players in memorization and recall.
There might be some correlation between chess ability and some manifestations
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Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Thanks for the insight (I only played a little in my youth), I stopped when I was required to study games. Not because memorization is an issue (I've had my fair share of successful heavy brain work), but because memorization of games led to no systematic insight, higher-awareness of the game etc. I got better when I remembered, and fell on my nose if I did even a slight error in reproducing a play. So maybe there is the occasional "wtf?!" moment in "higher chess", but compared to blunt memorization it was
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This sounds similar to a game that was taught for algorithm analysis and programming. The pick-up rules weren't so complicated but that doesn't matter. You lose when your turn leaves two matches on the table. (Your multiple set rule may allow for a higher number in some end-games.) The simplest version of this game requires ensuring the number of matches on the table is 2^n-1.
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The person who is forced to take the last match off the table loses. Point is: after 20 hrs or so you can memorize all winning combinations in all situations. Much like chess, pretty much as useless, but doesn't take 20 years to master.) ...
You did not get Chess.
In chess the one who takes the last "match" wins
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> To freely paraphrase a famous quote (sorry I forgot who it's attributed to): it's not about strategy; it's about memorizing many famous games and game situations.
This is utter nonsense (probably that's why you "forgot who it's attributed to" - no one with any clue about chess would say so).
I'm just a fide master (two titles below grandmaster), but I feel more than confident enough to beat the average club or tournament player starting from a worse position if I happen to run into a line that they memor
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This is utter nonsense (probably that's why you "forgot who it's attributed to" - no one with any clue about chess would say so).
Fellow slashdotter [slashdot.org] actually pointed me to the right quote.
I'm just a fide master (two titles below grandmaster), but ...
This still doesn't explain all the fuss; you may argue that it's not about memorization (that was my own statement, not part of the quote; but winning an argument against me about the minutiae of chess is not a terribly high achievement), but you still don't explain why all the effort is not in vain.
Thank you also for the description of the abilities of better vs lesser players. But I can't help but feel right because of those, not in spite of; you'
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
I quite agree with your position on chess. Can you name the handful of patterns to make dogs back off ? When in India, I needed to inflict violence on street dogs and I feel greatly guilty for that, even after a decade of the event. I felt cornered.
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Yes, but it's probably not going to help you because it's impossible to fake.
You need to take a slight slight angle towards its path of attack, as you would in order to "ram" it sideways at a ~30 degree angle if it were a car. If it should jumpat you, it must fly through the air and barely miss your center of mass. You have to rotate slightly from the side towards its core, as if ready to pierce his body with something you have (weapon, boot, arm...).
It works because... well, it's not a bluff, it is the rea
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
[The dog will] *adapt [its position]
(Sorry for the auto correct. Damned if you use it, damned if you don't.)
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Ok, you said you would "name" the positions. That got me thinking, that someone would surely have a tutorial on the internet to fake the position if I search with its name :) . I had no hope of learning the real deal.
Still interesting, thanks.
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
In the particular style I'm using, the names are "wun" (turning) and "buot" (cutting); transliteration from cantonese, sorry I don't have the Chinese symbols.
See my other post, I just replied to myself for completeness.
BTW, it doesn't take infinitely long to learn, rougly 3-5 years if you train 2x per week. You should look up a school that does Xing Yi and Baqua Quan (Not the style I'm practicing, but if you're from outside Europe, that's the moated likely source where you'll learn that.)
It's important that
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Google for "six and one half-point principles".
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
OPh, and to assign some names: the two patterns here are "turning" amd "cutting [the path pf attack]".
It works the same on humans, but most occasional aggressors lack the instinct to feel threatened, and they'll attack. Unless they're cognitively very impaired (drunk, high etc), very experienced, or just talented "naturals" as aggressors. The latter will probably attack anyway, the drunk might just leave you alone.
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Huh. We had stray and feral dogs here in my earlier days, and I had a job that took me from house to house, plus I lived in an area where they wandered freely. I used to be somewhat afraid of them, and would be attacked on occasion. I eventually had to bean one with a rock, and yes, I did feel guilty. But I gained confidence, and then, not just that dog, but others, seemed to attack me a whole lot less. I carried rocks in my pocket but only on the rarest occasion did I ever have to pull one out, and I d
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Nostalgia - carrying rocks in pockets and being afraid of running out of rocks :). I graduated to wrapping a chain around my wrist when going out for a run. Once a pretty lady was walking her German shepherd and let it come at me aggressively while I was huffing and puffing on my morning run. I merely let my chain unfold - scared the shit out of the dog within a second. I laughed hard due to the change in that dog's character.
Overall, no I didn't see any pattern of big dogs being easier. But yes to your oth
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To freely paraphrase a famous quote (sorry I forgot who it's attributed to): it's not about strategy; it's about memorizing many famous games and game situatations. And when you've done that, you've acquired a skill that's not even useful outside the chess game itself.
Now go is a different pair of shoes... that had a lot more to do with strategy and adapting to changed conditions, having a good idea and gaining advantage from that.
But chess... honestly, play the matchbox game instead, it's easier to memorize and just about as much fun as chess to beat the uninitiated.
(Matchbox game: put 5sets of matches on the table, 1st set with 1 match, 2nd set with 2 mm matches etc. Then play: take 1 or more matches, as many as you like, buy only from a single set per move; then your opponent draws, same rules, etc. The person who is forced to take the last match off the table loses. Point is: after 20 hrs or so you can memorize all winning combinations in all situations. Much like chess, pretty much as useless, but doesn't take 20 years to master.)
Arguably there is still strategy between folks of a similar level as there is a lot of variations of many of the standard plays even before taking new novelties into account which can be fun to explore and discover and can add an unknown element and fun to games, plus most who play for fun don't play so conservatively from what I see. Granted a lot boils down to who makes a mistake/misses something first sometimes which of course makes for boring games, either watching or playing, yet if skill levels are ma
Re: What's all the fuss about chess? (Score:2)
Thank you :) It was the Castiglione quote I had in mind apparently.
As little as possible. (Score:2)
In any case, less than the sucker who'll buy them from me to compensate the hollowness of his life and personality. ;)
Chess kings... for the man who already has the latest iPhone, iWatch (and iPlug but shhh), a neon orange Lamborghini with spinnin' rims recently replaced by "a understated sophisticated dark green Jaaag", audiophile wooden amp knob Monster cables and Nautilis speaker set to listen to the Jazz along with a drink and smoke from a humidor, wine cellar and whisky collection, that he all pretends
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In any case, less than the sucker who'll buy them from me to compensate the hollowness of his life and personality. ;)
If a sucker buys a $300 chess set from you, then you already bought a $300 chess set. What are you compensating for?
Wood is over rated (Score:4, Insightful)
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It needs two colours.
So it would be silver and gold.
Or if you want to be cheap, silver and bronze or brass.
Or even cheaper silver and copper. I guess the copper would get a nice look over the years.
Interesting would be: Silver and Iron.
Sounds like... (Score:2)
Sounds like the perfect job for a simple CNC mill.
You'll get far better detail and (if you want it) repeatability from piece to piece.
Sure, it's nice that's hand carved, but is it just the fact that a human carved it enough to justify the cost?
Well, of course (Score:2)
A pawn isn't anything more than proof you know how to make a lathe spin, and the other non-knight pieces are just that and some very simple carving. Only the knight has anything remotely complex if you're following standard Staunton patterns.
Instead of horses, a squire with a coconut (Score:2)
I got a discount set. Instead of horses, the king's squire hit coconuts together. Apparently carried by a swallow.
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It was good binging considering i usually watch the subtitled stuff.
Family has a 1970's chess set complete with 1970's haircuts - its kind of odd but still 'chess'.
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I'd imagine there is significant overlap with people who also watch Big Bang Theory.
Re:Queens Gambit (Score:4, Insightful)
There sure is a lot of pushing of this show lately. I wonder why.
Maybe it was just a good show?
I'm sure you wouldn't be saying that Star Wars was mentioned too many times, or there's a lot of mentions of Star Trek lately.
(or whatever movie/show it is that you regard as "good")
Let me introduce you to a genre... (Score:3, Insightful)
...called "fiction". Yes many stories are written where the situations are fake! Hard to believe, right? Sometimes they even mix made up situations with abilities that do not exist in nature. That usually is called "science fiction". If you want to read the progenitor of science fiction, pick up this book called "The Bible", it is chock full of this type of made up fantastic-ness.
Re: (Score:2)
Lots of stuff in the Bible that won't make the first bit of sense if you don't believe it.
You'll have to take my word for it, though I hope not forever, that it makes PERFECT sense if you do.
Also, there's a lot of stuff in the Bible that is simply common sense, including some common sense that used to be a lot more common than it is now. The book of Proverbs would be one example, and so would the biblical rules around sexuality. I'm continuously amazed by how many people haven't figured out yet that our s
Re: (Score:2)
You mean 'space opera.' Sci-fi elements, but with the science element merely a backdrop for the character drama.
Re: Just curious... (Score:3)
No itâ(TM)s now conservatives who are anti-vaccine and anti-GMO. They donâ(TM)t know science, donâ(TM)t know anything about biology.
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Conservatives rail against evolution and climate science, but push funding for things that support the defense industry a
P.S. If you find typos, ... (Score:2)
... address your complaints to whoever came up with touch screen keyboards. ;)