Wednesday, July 07, 2010

The Staunton set

As your old test papers used to say: read the passage below and then try to answer the questions.

On 8th September, a black and white gala event will be held at Simpson's in the Strand (the historic venue where the 1851 'Immortal Game' was played) as a fundraiser for Anatoly Karpov's campaign for the FIDE Presidency. In deference to the venue and England’s great 19th century player, this will be titled the Staunton Memorial Dinner.

(a) If you were holding a dinner in support of a given cause, wouldn't you normally name that dinner after the aforesaid cause rather than something completely different?

(b) If you were the promoter of a chess tournament, wouldn't you be delighted if a dinner which is likely to receive a lot of publicity were to be, somewhat surprisingly, named after your tournament?

(c) If you were supporting the cause alluded to in (a) on the grounds that you were seeking to remove individuals with questionable ethical standards from their positions of influence, would that claim be best served by associating yourself with the individual alluded to in (b)?


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