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Sarah Hurst Writes
November 27, 2015
Sarah Hurst, journalist, was born in 1973. She displays a political activism of an intensity I haven’t seen since the 1960s.
She had a revealing interview in the satirical chess magazine Kingpin in January, 2015:
http://www.kingpinchess.net/2015/01/...-20-questions/
Some points from it:
Sarah Hurst was a regular contributor to CHESS magazine in the 1990s and also edited the British Chess Federation’s newsletter, ChessMoves. Her fine book Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld is now available on Kindle. Since 2002 she has been translating articles and books for New in Chess, ChessCafe and other chess publishers. She has also worked in mining journalism, intercultural training and reality TV. She has lived in the UK, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, China and Alaska.
What made you write Curse of Kirsan?
The book is a collection of my chess articles plus a narrative about how I tried to survive as a freelance chess journalist in London in the 1990s. I had already written the articles, most of which had appeared in chess magazines, and I had moved to Alaska and thought it would be good to turn my articles into a book for posterity.
What did you hope it would achieve?
Nothing politically, there was no longer any momentum in the campaign against Kirsan by 2001, but I just hoped more people would be able to read my interviews with and articles about famous chess players.
________
She is now publishing a book online called The Gig Economy.
See:
https://gigeconomyblog.wordpress.com.../27/chapter-1/
From the first chapter:
While working at the American Russian Centre at the University of Alaska Anchorage, I started translating articles for New in Chess. This turned out to be one of my longest-lasting freelance gigs. Most of the articles were historical reminiscences by grandmaster Genna Sosonko at first, but later I also translated tournament reports and other kinds of articles, and helped to edit books for New in Chess. This was very decently-paid freelance work. The editor of New in Chess, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, would never reveal to me the exact pay per word, but it certainly helped to be paid in euros when living in the US.
I ended this work in 2014 when I decided that I could no longer assist in the promotion of activities taking place in Russia, due the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine. Sosonko, who lives in the Netherlands, wasn’t writing any more, so by that time I was mainly being asked to translate tournament reports.
Publications:
A Native Lad: Benny Benson Tells Alaska's Story (2010)
Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld (2002)
Chess on the Web (2000)
A Shrimp Learnt to Whistle (1997)
She also worked on these chess books:
Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources (Dvoretsky, 2015), The Complete Hedgehog (Shipov, 2011), No Passion for Chess Fashion (Raetsky, 2010), The Zukertort System (Bogdanovich, 2010), Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov (Karpov, 2008) and From London to Elista (Bareev, 2007)
November 27, 2015
Sarah Hurst, journalist, was born in 1973. She displays a political activism of an intensity I haven’t seen since the 1960s.
She had a revealing interview in the satirical chess magazine Kingpin in January, 2015:
http://www.kingpinchess.net/2015/01/...-20-questions/
Some points from it:
Sarah Hurst was a regular contributor to CHESS magazine in the 1990s and also edited the British Chess Federation’s newsletter, ChessMoves. Her fine book Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld is now available on Kindle. Since 2002 she has been translating articles and books for New in Chess, ChessCafe and other chess publishers. She has also worked in mining journalism, intercultural training and reality TV. She has lived in the UK, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, China and Alaska.
What made you write Curse of Kirsan?
The book is a collection of my chess articles plus a narrative about how I tried to survive as a freelance chess journalist in London in the 1990s. I had already written the articles, most of which had appeared in chess magazines, and I had moved to Alaska and thought it would be good to turn my articles into a book for posterity.
What did you hope it would achieve?
Nothing politically, there was no longer any momentum in the campaign against Kirsan by 2001, but I just hoped more people would be able to read my interviews with and articles about famous chess players.
________
She is now publishing a book online called The Gig Economy.
See:
https://gigeconomyblog.wordpress.com.../27/chapter-1/
From the first chapter:
While working at the American Russian Centre at the University of Alaska Anchorage, I started translating articles for New in Chess. This turned out to be one of my longest-lasting freelance gigs. Most of the articles were historical reminiscences by grandmaster Genna Sosonko at first, but later I also translated tournament reports and other kinds of articles, and helped to edit books for New in Chess. This was very decently-paid freelance work. The editor of New in Chess, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, would never reveal to me the exact pay per word, but it certainly helped to be paid in euros when living in the US.
I ended this work in 2014 when I decided that I could no longer assist in the promotion of activities taking place in Russia, due the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine. Sosonko, who lives in the Netherlands, wasn’t writing any more, so by that time I was mainly being asked to translate tournament reports.
Publications:
A Native Lad: Benny Benson Tells Alaska's Story (2010)
Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld (2002)
Chess on the Web (2000)
A Shrimp Learnt to Whistle (1997)
She also worked on these chess books:
Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources (Dvoretsky, 2015), The Complete Hedgehog (Shipov, 2011), No Passion for Chess Fashion (Raetsky, 2010), The Zukertort System (Bogdanovich, 2010), Find the Right Plan with Anatoly Karpov (Karpov, 2008) and From London to Elista (Bareev, 2007)
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