German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

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  • German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

    Last night on the CBC news documentary "The Fifth Estate", the latest episode was shown in the long-running Airbus saga, involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman, operator and political fixer Karlheinz Schreiber. The segment was entitled "The Chess Master", and this refers to Schreiber.

    Not that Schreiber actually plays chess at Master level; I don't know if he plays at all. But he has certainly pulled off some crafty gambits, with his selective release of certain explosive documents involving Airbus. This time, he gave documents to "The Fifth Estate" and The Globe and Mail, showing that certain people close to Mulroney likely lied to Parliament's Ethics Committee. Two major articles in the Globe this week complement last night's TV show.

    Schreiber is, of course, facing extradition proceedings to his native Germany, where authorities want to try him on various charges including fraud, bribery, corruption, etc. It has been nearly ten years since the German government demanded his return, but Schreiber seems to want to stay in Canada, where he is free, for the moment. Before he came to Canada, Schreiber was an officer in the West German spy agency.

    I don't think we :)have heard the last of Schreiber, by any means!

  • #2
    Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

    [QUOTE=Frank Dixon;4867]Last night on the CBC news documentary "The Fifth Estate", the latest episode was shown in the long-running Airbus saga, involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman, operator and political fixer Karlheinz Schreiber. The segment was entitled "The Chess Master", and this refers to Schreiber.]

    Frank,thank you for the message. To me, this type of situation is the reason why chess is not more popular in Canada. By connecting someone like Schreiber with the word "chess" gives chess a very bad image in the minds of non-chess players. Chess already has a trouble attracting new people to the game (especially in Canada), because the media hardly covers it,except, it seems in a negative manner. I don't believe I am being too harsh in my view of this documentary. If as you say, no mention is made of a connection between Schreiber and chess (in terms of him playing it, especially at a "master" level.). Thank you for your message, I am going to send an email to the CBC voicing my displeasure with the producer of the segment, and I hope that others in this forum do so to, taking time to tell this producer and or writer(s) of this segment, that they should have used another way of describing Schreiber, than using the phrase "Chess Master". I suggest if we we write the CBC and educate them about their inaccurate link between Schrieber and a real chess master, we may even get mentioned if The Fifth Estate does discuss viewer mail at some point of the show (perhaps at the very end of the show?),

    Sincerely,
    Wayne

    P.S. You can leave a comment about the improper use of the word "Chess Master" by going to this link:

    http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/discussion/2....html#comments

    Also you can write the Fifth estate and tell them how much you dislike their inappropriate use of the phrase "Chess Master" in this show. You can do so by going here:

    http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/contact.html

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

      Originally posted by Wayne Mendryk View Post
      Also you can write the Fifth estate and tell them how much you dislike their inappropriate use of the phrase "Chess Master" in this show. You can do so by going here:
      I caught the end of that segment but not the entire segment. I've sent them the following email on the link you gave and I left my name and email.

      "I'm writing regarding The Chess Master segment on the 5th estate. This referred to Schrieber and the Airbus affair.

      The major question is if he is a Chess Master.

      I am a Chess Master and have received the titles of International Master and Senior International Master in Correspondence Chess from the world governing body of Correspondence Chess. I represent Canada on National Canadian Chess Teams and have for many years.

      Would you kindly find out if the man is a real chess master and if not correct your error?

      Thank you."
      Gary Ruben
      CC - IA and SIM

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

        Representing correspondance chess in this way is misleading as well. If a sponsor was looking at the Olympiad for example they might look at your representation and think you would be a candidate for the national team. Of course we all know this is not remotely possible.

        When people win rotisserie baseball leagues they don't get nominated to manage real baseball teams. The parallal is right on. The rotisserie is a simulation of the real thing. Takes some skill and knowledge to be good but it's nothing like the real thing or the life investment to be there.

        The irony of your email doesn't escape all of us. If we are to let it go then why not let this other guy be called "chess master".

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

          Originally posted by Duncan Smith View Post
          Representing correspondance chess in this way is misleading as well. If a sponsor was looking at the Olympiad for example they might look at your representation and think you would be a candidate for the national team. Of course we all know this is not remotely possible.

          When people win rotisserie baseball leagues they don't get nominated to manage real baseball teams. The parallal is right on. The rotisserie is a simulation of the real thing. Takes some skill and knowledge to be good but it's nothing like the real thing or the life investment to be there.

          The irony of your email doesn't escape all of us. If we are to let it go then why not let this other guy be called "chess master".

          All three of Smiths wins at the Olympic came against unrated players. A rating performance of 1833 from 8 games. What's that? The lower end of Class A?

          That's some good, Duncan. :) They don't give titles for those kind of performances.

          In case you are wondering, the idea is to defeat opponents and not to entertain them.

          If you want to continue this discussion I'll post some of the games with notes.
          Gary Ruben
          CC - IA and SIM

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

            Originally posted by Gary Ruben View Post
            If you want to continue this discussion I'll post some of the games with notes.
            Please bring your own OTB games :D

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

              Originally posted by Wayne Mendryk View Post
              Frank,thank you for the message. To me, this type of situation is the reason why chess is not more popular in Canada. By connecting someone like Schreiber with the word "chess" gives chess a very bad image in the minds of non-chess players. Chess already has a trouble attracting new people to the game (especially in Canada), because the media hardly covers it,except, it seems in a negative manner.
              I generally think of chess being portrayed in a positive manner in the media and TV - it is usually used to indicate intelligence or higher culture in my experience.

              I don't think this sort of thing has anything to do with why chess is not popular in Canada.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

                Gary it seems to me that you are so bought into your own chess fantasy that you even believe misrepresenting yourself is good business.

                Gary Ruben is rated 1874 by the CFC which is an A class player ( 2000 rating is an "expert", and 2200 is a "master" ).
                Last edited by Duncan Smith; Saturday, 6th December, 2008, 02:14 AM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

                  Originally posted by Duncan Smith View Post
                  Gary it seems to me that you are so bought into your own chess fantasy that you even believe misrepresenting yourself is good business.

                  Gary Ruben is rated 1874 by the CFC which is an A class player ( 2000 rating is an "expert", and 2200 is a "master" ).
                  I suggest you take care about what you accuse me of doing. I have the certificates and medals to prove my credentials.
                  Gary Ruben
                  CC - IA and SIM

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

                    Originally posted by David Ottosen View Post
                    I generally think of chess being portrayed in a positive manner in the media and TV - it is usually used to indicate intelligence or higher culture in my experience.

                    I don't think this sort of thing has anything to do with why chess is not popular in Canada.
                    I agree with both parts of this post.
                    I think the reason that chess isn't more popular is that generally speaking:

                    "Thinking is the greatest torture in the world for most people." -- Luther Burbank, American botanist
                    "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: German "Chess Master" loves Canada so much ...

                      Lots of interesting replies to this post, although the direction which the discussion took certainly wasn't what I had anticipated when I wrote it.

                      Although Karlheinz Schreiber may not have the chess master's skills at the board, he certainly has kept his plans close to the vest, while retaining many options, in the long-running Airbus saga, and this justifies the chess master's comparison, which was used as the title of "The Fifth Estate" show, in my view. And Schreiber has used his foxiness to keep out of the clutches of German investigators, and is even free now in Canada, at least for a while. In Germany, Schreiber is accused of bribery on a massive scale, in a scandal which helped bring down the government of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

                      What the latest segment, together with the Globe and Mail's coverage, showed is that there was a definite correlation between the timing of the cash payments made from Schreiber to Mulroney (which Mulroney, testifying under oath, denied altogether had existed in his successful 1995 libel lawsuit against the government of Canada, for which he was awarded $2.1 million plus costs), and the delivery of the actual Airbus planes to Air Canada. This is new information in the public domain, and will likely be incorporated into the Public Inquiry which was called about a year ago by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as the terms of the inquiry seem broad enough to allow this. Author William Kaplan exposed the payments, which Schreiber claims totalled $300,000, while Mulroney eventually fessed up to $225,000. So, we may be finally getting close to the ultimate truth here, some 20 years after the affair first surfaced in the media.

                      And I agree with IM Tom O'Donnell's post on the reason why chess is not more popular in Canada. Let's face it, chess is a very tough game to play well, and it does require an enormous amount of concentrated thinking, which is a task many people seek to avoid whenever they can. :)

                      Comment

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