Friday, December 15, 2006

Chess and Death in the News

Chess is often linked to death in the popular imagination, perhaps because, for many people, both represent mysterious puzzles that are little understood. We should not be surprised therefore to find two dark news stories where headlines play up a chess connection:

Russian 'Crazy Chess Killer' Charged (multiple other articles via Google News)
A Moscow man has been formally charged with murder in connection with a killing spree where he claimed 62 victims. He was stopped two shy of his goal of 64: one for every square on a chess board.

Father of British Chess Prodigy Cleared (multiple other articles via Google News)
In the sad tale of Jessie Gilbert (mentioned here previously in August), chess was aligned with suicide and charges of rape and incest.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they played too much chess? Or perhaps they lost too much? (All that pressure must have had some effect). The 62 kill guy was really sick. I think he actually wanted to get caught so he can tell everybody his "accomplishments".