Termitewatch (29) - General Ignorance

It seems the average termite simply cannot open its mouth without putting its foot in it. In the wake of Anand retaining his world title, someone on the Forum asked who holds the record for the most successful title defences. Immediately, one Ian Kingston, a particularly unpleasant specimen of the termitic genre, who never misses the opportunity to make disparaging comments about this blog, responded with the answer six, quoting as evidence that omnipotent source, Wikipedia. The number six is arrived at by counting Steinitz, Marshall, Tarrasch, Schlechter and two defences against Janowski. To this moment, nobody else on the Forum has questioned this assertion.

Sadly for Kingston, it is a well-established fact that only one of the three Lasker-Janowski matches was for the world title. This was proved many years ago by the respected chess historian, Ken Whyld. When Lasker agreed to play Janowski in 1909, he was already committed to defending his title against Schlechter the following year, and he made clear that the title could not therefore be at stake in the match against Janowski. None of the contemporary newspaper or magazine sources referred to the latter as a title match and there can be no doubt at all that the title was not at stake.

The Ian Kingston of the TV quiz world? (photo: qi.com)

Kingston's ignorance is all the more reprehensible for the fact that the truth about the 1909 Lasker-Janowski match is available in many, easily accessible sources. Inter alia, I would refer him to my article in the March 2012 issue of Chess, Britain's leading (in every sense of the word) chess magazine. The article posed a Stephen Fry / QI / General Ignorance-style quiz, of popular misconceptions about chess history. The final question asked how many times Lasker defended his world title against Janowski, and gave chapter and verse on the matter.

Never let it be said that I do not do my best to educate the termites, but I fear 'tis a hopeless task!