Chess is the epitome of weird but true. And it gets weirder:
* A 26-year-old Bulgarian computer programmer was strip-searched last month after he played too well.
The little-known Borislav Ivanov upset three grandmasters at a tournament in Zadar, Croatia, and performed at a level 400 points above his rating.
Ivanov was stripped after the eighth round, but no electronic devices were found. One of the other players, GM Zlatko Klaric, told the newspaper Jutarnji List that technology is so developed today that a cheater could be getting help “even from Antartica” from friends sending them moves to chips hidden in the cheater’s ear or mouth or under his skin.
* A new Italian publication, SPQ&R Magazine, has nothing to do with the ancient Latin initials (which stood for “The People and Senate of Rome”).
No, they stand for the magazine’s four subjects: chess (scacchi), boxing, rugby and, of course, chess boxing. The cover of the most recent issue was devoted to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.
* And a computer program called Chesthetica Endgame, which can evaluate the prettiness of composed studies and problems, won a “foreign special award” from the Association of Polish Inventors and Rationalizers.