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Tag: jose mourinho

  • Chess World’s ‘Anal Bead’ Cheating Saga Quietly Comes To An End

    Chess World’s ‘Anal Bead’ Cheating Saga Quietly Comes To An End

    It felt like this day might never come, but former world champion Magnus Carlsen and grandmaster Hans Niemann have finally put the cheating scandal that rocked the chess world last year, including meme-filled speculation about anal beads, to bed.

    This Narrative Adventure About Doomed Teenage Dinosaurs Feels Too Real

    Chess.com and Carlsen reached a settlement with Niemann, who had sued them and Twitch streamer Hikaru Nakamura for $100 million over what he alleged was a “civil conspiracy” to defame him. “We are pleased to report that we have reached an agreement with Hans Niemann to put our differences behind us and move forward together without further litigation,” Chess.com wrote in an update on August 28. As a result, Niemann will once again be allowed to compete on the online chess platform, and Carlsen has agreed to play him in the future should they meet in a tournament.

    “I acknowledge and understand Chess.com’s report, including its statement that there is no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated in his game against me at the Sinquefield Cup,” Carlsen said in a statement. “I am willing to play Niemann in future events, should we be paired together.”

    It was the former world champion’s remarks that initially set the largest cheating scandal in the modern era of the game in motion. After losing to Niemann in a shocking upset during the early stages of the August 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen resigned from the tournament completely, and tweeted out a Jose Mourinho meme implying Niemann had cheated.

    The accusations took chess message boards and Twitch communities by storm, with viewers in the Chessbrah Twitch chat joking that maybe Niemann had used anal beads to communicate with someone sending him the best moves from the outside using an AI chess engine. Anal beads became a running joke, not because there was any evidence they were ever used, but precisely because there was never any evidence that Niemann ever actually cheated, let alone how he would have managed to, given the Sinquefield Cup’s strict security. It even became the basis for an entire episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

    It was all fun and games until Carlsen doubled-down on his allegations in September and Chess.com released a 72-page report in October accusing Niemann of cheating in several matches played on the website. Niemann fired back with a $100 million lawsuit accusing Carlsen of leveraging his “media empire” and partnerships with Chess.com to try and get Niemann blacklisted from tournaments and shunned from the professional chess world.

    A federal judge tossed out Niemann’s lawsuit in June, but he tried to appeal the decision and now the two sides have settled. While Chess.com said it stands by its previous report, it also admits that there is no “determinative evidence” that Niemann ever cheated in any in-person games.

    “I am pleased that my lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com has been resolved in a mutually acceptable manner, and that I am returning to Chess.com,” Niemann said in a statement. “I look forward to competing against Magnus in chess rather than in court.”

             

    Ethan Gach

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  • Jose Mourinho Adds Another Layer Of Intrigue To Injury-Hit Rome Derby

    Jose Mourinho Adds Another Layer Of Intrigue To Injury-Hit Rome Derby

    The Rome derby is one of the most passionate in world football, pitting AS Roma against Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico, the Italian capital’s two clubs going head-to-head in a battle for local pride and bragging rights.

    With Roma sitting one point and one place above their bitter rivals, they currently occupy the fourth and final Champions League berth in Serie A, meaning this latest edition is certainly not lacking in tension.

    Of course, that wouldn’t stop Jose Mourinho from stoking the flames. Lazio director Igli Tare made himself an easy target for the Portuguese Coach this past week, labelling the UEFA Conference League “the losers’ competition.”

    Just a few days later, Lazio dropped into the next round of that trophy after dropping out of the Europa League, prompting a delighted Mourinho to focus his aim on former striker Tare.

    “I think Lazio have now become the favourites to win the Conference League. I say this with honesty,” he told reporters at a press conference earlier this week. “Lazio have the coach, the players, and the team to do it.

    “Maybe the problem is that they have Mr. Tare who doesn’t want to win it because he doesn’t like this competition…”

    There is no doubt that both teams will be desperate to win when they clash on Sunday evening, despite recent clashes being tamer than previous editions. Indeed, in the three points for a win era, no match-up has seen more than the 35 shared by these two sides, yet there has not been a sending off in any of their last six meetings.

    Roma are nominally the home side this time around, and their record when hosting the derby has been superb, losing just two of the last 24 derbies when that is the case. The most recent of those was back in 2017 and the Giallorossi have recorded four wins and a draw in the last five such encounters.

    To win this time around however, they will need to overcome a long injury list. Mourinho will go into this weekend with Ebrima Darboe, Paulo Dybala, Leonardo Spinazzola, and Georginio Wijnaldum all sidelined.

    That will place a heavy burden on Tammy Abraham in attack, but the England striker is struggling for goals. He last found the net in Serie A on September 12 against Empoli, scoring just once since then after bagging a Europa League goal in the win over HJK last week.

    But while Roma need their star striker to shine, Lazio must cope without theirs, Ciro Immobile expected to miss out as he has yet to recover from a hamstring injury suffered in mid-October.

    Also absent for Maurizio Sarri’s men will be Sergej Milinković-Savić, who has been one of Serie A’s best midfielders so far this season. The Serbia international has already weighed in with five goals and seven assists for the Biancocelesti, but will serve a one-match ban after collecting his fifth yellow card of the campaign last weekend.

    His absence will be sorely felt, but it will not detract from the importance of this clash, as once again all eyes turn to Rome for another instalment of the Derby della Capitale.

    Adam Digby, Contributor

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  • Soccer lexicon: ‘Squeaky bum time’ and ‘park the bus’ added to Oxford English Dictionary | CNN

    Soccer lexicon: ‘Squeaky bum time’ and ‘park the bus’ added to Oxford English Dictionary | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Soccer’s lexicon is a rich reservoir of often curiously contorted cliche and phrasing, frequently the subject of parody.

    Now, the linguistic ingenuity of two of the most influential coaches in modern football – Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho – have been officially recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

    Ferguson’s phrase “squeaky bum time” and Mourinho’s “park the bus” comment were two of 15 football-themed OED additions ahead of the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

    “While the OED already covered a large number of football terms, from catenaccio to nutmeg to water carrier, this select batch of additions fills a few gaps in our formation,” the dictionary said in a statement.

    The term “squeaky bum time” originated in a 2003 media conference when Ferguson was looking to heap pressure on Manchester United’s English Premier League rival Arsenal.

    “They have a replay against Chelsea and if they win it they would face a semifinal three days before playing us in the league,” said Ferguson.

    “But then they did say they were going to win the treble, didn’t they? It’s squeaky bum time and we’ve got the experience now to cope.”

    The OED defines Ferguson’s phrase as a “a reference to the sound of someone shifting restlessly on plastic seating during tense closing stages of a contest.”

    Current AS Roma coach Mourinho, who is famed for his influence on British culture – including a cameo appearance in English rapper and singer Stormzy’s latest music video – has also made the OED cut.

    The OED’s definition of the former Chelsea manager’s “park the bus” is “to play in a very defensive way, typically by having the majority of outfield players close to their own goal and showing little attacking intent.”

    “As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal,” Mourinho said after Chelsea’s 0-0 draw against Tottenham in 2004.

    “I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 [around $56] to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. I’m really frustrated because there was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede. It’s not fair for the football we played.”

    Some of the other football-related OED entries are: “Total Football” (a brand of attacking, possession-based football often credited to the Netherlands), “Row Z” (the furthest seat from the sideline in a stadium), “False No. 9” (a player who starts in the striker position but drops deeper in the field) and “Trequartista” (an Italian expression describing a player who plays in the spaces between the midfield and strikers).

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