Termitewatch (19) - The Sincerest Form of Flattery

As previously announced, I have been out of action over the past few days, attending the annual meeting of the Ken Whyld Association. More on this splendid weekend later, and more too, on events at the Egregious Chess Federation's Finance Meeting on Saturday, which was every bit as disgraceful as one might have expected.

But for now, just a brief observation on the latest doings of the Bedlam Brigade at S&B. As is well known, these  charming people are extremely censorious of alleged acts of plagiarism in chess, especially when it may involve the chess correspondent of one of our leading national newspapers. I was therefore most interested to read  Friday's contribution to the Bedlam Brigade blog, which speculated on the possibility of Geoffrey Boycott commentating on chess:

Wouldn't the London Chess Classic be even more fun if we had him wandering around the hall explaining to all and sundry that his grannie could have mated Carlsen 'with a stick of rhubarb'?

Interestingly, the very same idea was mentioned in an article in the April issue of Chess, where yours truly wrote, concerning a dead drawn rook ending, which a leading GM had managed to lose:

It is just as well Geoffrey Boycott doesn't commentate on chess. I can just hear his drawling tones, solemnly declaring "That's baaad technique is that. My old moom could have drawn that ending, with her pinny on!".

Of course, it goes without saying that it is a mere Plaskettian coincidence that my piece in Chess should have appeared just a week or so before the Bedlam Brigade's effort. After all, it is utterly unthinkable that a group of people so deeply concerned about the provenance of a few lines of analysis of the Lisitsyn Gambit, should  themselves pinch ideas from somebody else...