My interview for “Only a Game” aired on National Public Radio last Saturday… and they forgot to tell me! You can still listen to it online at the Only a Game website.
Although any publicity is good publicity, I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed. I hear things like the throat-clearing at the beginning and wonder, “Why didn’t they edit that out?” Also, I think that the story just isn’t told very well. They had to edit a one-hour interview down to 6 minutes, which is next to impossible, and I feel as if the story is told in very short fragments that don’t quite fit together. Partly it’s my fault. In retrospect, I should have told the whole basic story, without frills, one time through at the beginning of the interview, and after that was finished we could have gone into all the philosophizing about beauty and how should we view the computer, as a rival or as a tool, etc.
I also wish they had posted a link to the original Story Collider article that prompted the interview. Or a link to the USCF website. Or my blog. Or any chess website. As it is, the story’s just there and there’s no way for the listener to follow up on it.
But good grief, I shouldn’t complain too much! How many people get to be on NPR? Any appearance of chess in the national media is a good thing, right? So give it a listen and don’t let my comments discourage you.
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Dana.
I listened to the interview which I thought was okay. I somehow missed your account of the game previously told.
I went and read your essay on Story Collider and thought it was a wonderful story and very well told.
I love stories and if there were a book of chess stories like the one you wrote, I would be the first in line to buy it.