Going apoplectic

townhall.com ^ | 8/27/04 | Charles Krauthammer

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON -- Upon losing a game at the 1925 Baden-Baden tournament, Aaron Nimzowitsch, the great chess theoretician and a superb player, knocked the pieces off the board, jumped on the table and screamed, ``How can I lose to this idiot?''
  
  Nimzowitsch may have lived decades ago in Denmark, but had the soul of a modern American Democrat. After all, Democrats have been saying much the same -- with similar body language -- ever since the erudite Adlai Stevenson lost to the syntactically challenged Eisenhower in 1952. They said it again when they lost to that supposed simpleton Reagan. Twice, would you believe. With George W. Bush, they are at it again, and equally apoplectic.

     Actually, this time around, even more apoplectic. The Democrats' current disdain for George Bush reminds me of another chess master, Efim Bogoljubov, who once said, ``When I am White, I win because I am White'' -- White moves first and therefore has a distinct advantage -- ``when I am Black, I win because I am Bogoljubov.'' John Kerry is a man of similar vanity -- intellectual and moral -- and that spirit thoroughly permeates the Democratic Party.

     Democrats feel a mixture of horror and contempt for the huddled masses -- so bovine, so benighted, so besotted with talk radio -- who made a king of an empty-headed movie star (Reagan, long before Arnold) and inexplicably want the Republicans' current nitwit leader to have a second term.

[Excuse_Me]

I think that Bush will win quite handily, and then the Democrats brains will explode. Poor things...

[HarryCaul]

You know, honestly, I'm not a huge Bush fan (though I think he's built one of the greatest teams in presidential history, both in terms of his administration and his political squad).

But I'm gonna loooooooooooooove the squealing of the self-righteous, half-as-smart-as-they-think-they-are, duped-by -master-manipulators hardcore Dems come the Day After Election Day.

Many of them, I suspect, will explode.

It's going to be so much fun.

[TheConservator]

Charles Krauthammer plays chess! Who knew?

[SAJ]

Boy, I certainly hope Mr. Krauthammer PLAYS a better game of chess than he narrates portions of chess history.

First, Mr. Krauthammer, we haven't used the letter 'w' in transliterative orthography from the Russian language in DECADES, putz. Try ''Nimzovich''.

And, he spelt his first name with exactly one 'A', not two, hence 'Aron'.

Now, as regards Bogolyubov (which name, btw, means ''beloved of G-d''), he was hardly the first to make the comment about winning whether white or black. Some 3 decades earlier, the great Russian champion Tchigorin was the originator of the comment. How Bogolyubov has come to be credited with this remark is entirely a mystery; this whole business is and has been well-documented for, once again, many decades.

Tell me, KrautMartel old boy, would you care to narrate the tale of the conversation between Alyekhine and Nimzovich at the championship tourney in 1926? (You DO know where it was contested, correct?)

Oh, you don't? Ah, too bad, CabbageHammer.

Stick to the knitting you know, laddiebuck.

[judywillow]

Nimzovitch played by a kind of a system, which could be a blessing or a curse depending upon several kinds of factors.

[Keltik]

Never thought I'd see Nimzo mentioned here -- though I'm a Richard Reti man myself.

[Ditter]

Good one thanks!

[Texasforever]

The result has been volcanic. The subject of one prominent new novel is whether George W. Bush should be assassinated. This is all quite unhinged. Good God. What if Bush is re-elected? If they lose to him again, Democrats will need more than just consolation. They'll need therapy.

No they will need to be watched very closely.

[SAJ]

And, said he correcting his own absent-mindedness, the actual wording of Nimzovich's famed ''aaauuughh'' one-sentence rant, perhaps the equivalent of the Dean scream in an earlier age, (charitably ignoring, natch, that Nimzovich was exceptionally competent while Dean is unquestionably a whack job), as reported by both Edward Lasker and the incomparable Capablanca, among a number of others (all of whom were present) -- ''WHY must **I** lose to this idiot?!''

Sorry, Charlie.

[LiberalBassTurds]

Awesome article bump.

LBT

-=-=-

[Jeff Chandler]

My bet is they'll explode BEFORE the election, when it becomes apparent that they'll lose.

I further predict that Kerry will file lawsuits against the Swifties soon.

[AndyTheBear]

Normally, I would not be one to nit pick someone's use of the language, but in this case an exception is demanded:

And, he spelt his first name with exactly one 'A', not two, hence 'Aron'.

On an American forum, your use of the British form "spelt" was entirely inappropriate. Especially in simple rather the perfect past tense. It sounds like you are over correcting, perhaps to compensate for something?

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP!

[Lurking2Long]

Yeah, like the Martians in Mars Attacks!

[Democratshavenobrains]

I think that even if 9/11 had not happened, there would still be this crazy hatred of Bush by the Democrats. They would still have abortion, religion and other domestic issues to whine about, not to mention the 'stolen election' crying.

[Straight Vermonter]

Chess history ping

[Straight Vermonter]

Try that again

Chess history ping.

[goldstategop]

Poor Democrats. They really are in need of therapy. After all its perfectly understandable they need to get it out about this President. Being forced to be gracious was too much to bear and at last they're going back to their normal selves.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Naughtius' imaginary history.

N: Why must I lose to this idiot!?

Opponent: Because, you see, when you moved your knight there, I moved my queen there, and then I called "check" so you had to move your king and ...