Chess, and The President

Was chess news the first thing on your mind today, as you revved up your interweb for some recreational reading? Or was it, perhaps, that election thing over in the U.S. of A?

Well don't worry, because here in blogland you can have both. Take the The Chess Drum for instance, who argue that "the campaign run by the Obama team resembled a chess game that was efficient, focused and powerful," adding that it

is no surprise that Obama has supported chess initiatives and recently mentioned the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone. He may be the first President who may have spoken openly about the merits of chess. If this is any indication of the support chess will receive by the Obama administration, then the United States Chess Federation needs to leverage this support into tangible programs to promote chess and education.

I have a feeling promoting chess won't be Obama's first policy priority, but you never know. Let's hope so.

On second thoughts and for rather obvious reasons, in fact let's hope not . . . As for elsewhere, Susan Polgar's brief congratulations to Barack have sparked as profound an intellectual debate as ever in her comments, and over at the Daily Dirt Mig is doing what he does best and quoting Kasparov on the matter. And so the world turns.