23 Dec 10
1 edit
Originally posted by greenpawn34We don't lay that much claim to Russell Crowe - but well done to EinZweiDrei for Ernest Rutherford! (and Flight of the Conchords) There is a history buff.
Russel Crowe is a famous New Zealander.
Him and Sir Edmund Hillary are all that I can think of.
We are only a small country of 4m people so it's not surprising people can't think of famous New Zealanders. However, depending on your field of interest, you may have heard of more New Zealanders than you realise (although not from the world of chess).
If your interest is movies/films etc then you have probably heard of Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Xena (aka Lucy Lawless) and possibly Sam Neill or Anna Paquin. Maybe even the model Rachel Hunter?
If you are into sports / sports history you may have heard of Jonah Lomu (rugby), Sir Richard Hadlee (cricket), Rob Waddell (rowing), Sir Peter Blake (yachting) or maybe Mark Todd (equestrian).
However, if you follow motorsports (especially formula 1) then you have probably heard of the McLaren racing team - named after Bruce McLaren of New Zealand who was the godfather of vehicle aerodynamics. If your preference is the two wheel variety you may have heard of Aaron Slight, John Britten or even Burt Munro (world's fastest Indian).
If you have more of an artistic bent you may have seen the works of Charles Goldie, or heard Dame Kiri Te Kanawa at the opera. But we are chess players here so I seriously doubt that.....! 🙂 You probably know a few of the songs by Neil Finn and Crowded House.
History buffs might have heard of war hero Sir Keith Park (Battle of Britain) or even Richard Pearse (who flew before the Wright brothers).
But it is a long time between drinks and it is easy to over-estimate "fame" on the global stage or outside the Commonwealth. We have a saying here : "World Famous ..... in New Zealand", which pretty much speaks for itself. But you won't see New Zealander's bragging about their achievements; they tend to play them down and rely on others to blow their trumpet {as I am doing now}.
As to those who doubt the authenticity of skeeter's achievements, look at the average rating of her opponents, the skyscraper graph and the interaction in the forums. These 3 aspects are quite different to others who have recently been purged from this website.
Cheers, Andrew
23 Dec 10
Originally posted by andrew93none of those excluding the movie people ring any bells. well edmund hillary and rutherford do. and flight of the conchords (incidentally they're on telly here in 20 minutes).
We don't lay that much claim to Russell Crowe - but well done to EinZweiDrei for Ernest Rutherford! (and Flight of the Conchords) There is a history buff.
We are only a small country of 4m people so it's not surprising people can't think of famous New Zealanders. However, depending on your field of interest, you may have heard of more New Zealanders t ...[text shortened]... ifferent to others who have recently been purged from this website.
Cheers, Andrew
24 Dec 10
Originally posted by DiophantusAgreed. CC means research, hard work and patience. You must know to drive your engine into areas where a lone engine would offer wrong evaluations, like the sharp lines of hippopotamus gambit.
Depends, FMs aren't necessarily super duper powerful CC players, especially if they concentrate on OTB skills. The top guy on chess.com seems legit, he's survived the rather draconian banning system they have for many years now, and yet he is outperforming various titled players. I'd be more worried if you could show me a pre-computer CC master that Skeeter had soundly thrashed.
I have no idea about the draconian banning system of chess.com. I only know that always the top player there was Borg. There are no perfect anti-cheating systems. Even on ICC you can cheat, if you want to. The only think a chess site can do is limit the number of cheaters.
24 Dec 10
Originally posted by wormwoodI would expect that - it depends on a persons interests and where they are from. If I look at a list of famous people from Louisiana (which has a similar population), I recognise the names of a few actors and a couple of musicians and Lee Harvey Oswald.
none of those excluding the movie people ring any bells. well edmund hillary and rutherford do. and flight of the conchords (incidentally they're on telly here in 20 minutes).
But if you look at the list of famous people from Louisiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Louisiana) it is a really long list for anyone not from there. I would expect a similar reaction (to mine and yours) from anyone looking at lists of 'famous' people from any place with a similar population.
Cheers, Andrew
24 Dec 10
1 edit
Originally posted by DiophantusI hope I can make someone else from New Zealand famous!
Why do they have to be famous? About the only famous New Zealander I can think of off hand is Edmund Hillary and I haven't a clue whether or not he played chess.
I play Alekhine's Defense, and my OTB prep against the Voronezh variation is based in part on the treatment shown in the games of a gentleman named John Russell Dive, who has played in the New Zealand championship a few times.
He is an IM in the 2300 something range. Skeeter or Andrew93, if you know him, please give him my thanks!
Paul Leggett
25 Dec 10
Originally posted by andrew93yeah, the list of famous people isn't a list of famous people.
I would expect that - it depends on a persons interests and where they are from. If I look at a list of famous people from Louisiana (which has a similar population), I recognise the names of a few actors and a couple of musicians and Lee Harvey Oswald.
But if you look at the list of famous people from Louisiana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_peo ...[text shortened]... ooking at lists of 'famous' people from any place with a similar population.
Cheers, Andrew
the rule of thumb is: if you need to attach "the famous" to a name, the person in question is not famous.