Rybka

Shelby Lyman, the PBS tv host of the great Fischer-Spassky match of 1972, passed away this past August. Only Fischer did more to popularize chess in the US. Like Fischer, he was originally from Brooklyn.

I read several tributes to his life. This one from the "Atlantic" is one of the best:

Another chess master who was central to the Fischer story also died last month: Shelby Lyman. Though not a world-class player, Lyman did more to popularize chess in America than anyone not named Bobby Fischer. He was teaching chess in New York when one of his students, a TV executive, tapped him to host a PBS show covering the Fischer-Spassky match. Lyman proved a natural showman, explaining densely complicated chess positions to TV viewers, many of whom thought of a fork only as an eating utensil. (In chess, it’s a move where a single piece makes at least two simultaneous attacks.) Like tons of other kids at the time, I’d turn to Channel 13 in New York that summer and follow Lyman’s commentary move by move, sparking a lifelong interest in the game. After becoming a journalist, I wrote about Lyman, and from time to time we’d talk about the match.

“I had no concept of TV,” he told me. “I never watched television. I had no idea how a talk show host should act.” But, he added, “chess is a dramatic event. You could hear the swords clang on the shields with every move. They went at each other. The average person is turned onto chess when it’s presented right. Trying to figure out the next move is a fascinating adventure—an adventure people can get into.”

With his bushy brown hair and endearing miscues (in that low-tech era, he’d fumble for the pieces he used to shove onto demonstration boards), Lyman became a mini-celebrity, while interest in the ancient game boomed. In the year before the match, membership in the U.S. Chess Federation was about 27,000. A year after Fischer won the title, it had more than doubled, to about 59,000. “Shelby was the face of chess in America,” Bruce Pandolfini, the coach and author who was played by the actor Ben Kingsley in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, told me.

The politics of today will not support a taxpayer gift to a profit-making company. See Amazon in nearby western Queens. If it happens then I think it would be great for MLS and NYCFC, but I doubt it happens.

The more guys we send to Europe with big contracts, the more attractive it will be to play here. It's a revolving door, and it affects results negatively, but it's not the worst situation. Young  players will continue to want to play for us. Certainly Long is capable of playing in the EPL for a non-top6 team.

Semi-related, but I wonder if the second half of the new PATH station will be open by the Chicago match? In January they said May or June and it looks pretty much ready to go.

60 to 90 days.

IIRC, there was an attempt to build a soccer arena for the MetroStars adjacent to Giants Stadium on Meadowlands property. Anyone recall that?

If they don't sign him, the Cosmos will.

Does he have a brother we can sign?

Why are we so unlucky with SA signees and DC just the opposite? If I was GM, the first thing I would do is poach their SA scouts!

10pm tonight on univision- 1st leg of final between Monterrey and Tigres.

But will TH coach games on artificial turf?

Armas should be given some time to straighten out the mess. But TH is available today, and tomorrow he might not be available. 

Is it the same ticket for every game?

yes. the season ticket works all season. do not give it to someone for a single game.

if you want to give away a specific game,  go to the "manage my tickets" section of the app and get a specific picture for that one game. That game will no longer be available on the season ticket.

How many sportswriters or fans know that Texas Tech besides being an ncaa basketball powerhouse, is also a collegiate chess powerhouse?

History

The Knight Raiders Chess Club was founded in 2003 by Hal Karlsson, Associate Professor of Geosciences, with the goal to promote chess at Texas Tech University as well as in the community. The Texas Tech Chess Program, housed under the Division of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, was developed in 2007 and since then has captured more than ten national titles, as well as regional and state championships. In both 2011 and 2012, The Texas Tech University Chess Team has brought home the National Collegiate Team Championship. In 2014, Tech made history by receiving a double honor from the U.S. Chess Federation; Texas Tech University was named Chess College of the Year while Head Coach and Director Alex Onischuk was recognized as Grandmaster of the Year. In 2018, Director Onischuk was inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame.

In December of 2015 the Texas Tech, Chess Team won the 2015 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship for the first time in program history. The Texas Tech Chess Team has qualified for The Final Four for the years 2010-2012 and 2014-2018.

It wasn't just the goals that he scored yesterday, his general play was more impressive. From the moment he entered due to Valot's injury, the game turned. He seemed to be a field general that organized the players into a team, similar to what Tyler Adams does. The 2 goals were just icing on the cake.

The Caricola.

Name for a new sports drink for RB to peddle? "Cari-Cola"