18 March 2018

The Capablanca Cocktail

How did the word 'bar' get so many different meanings? In this series on The Sociology of Chess (November 2016), we've already seen Chess Behind Bars (October 2017; 'Interview with Carl Portman on Chess in Prisons'). Here's another meaning of the word, from Youtube's World Chess coverage of the 2018 Berlin Candidates Tournament:-

In the World Chess Club Moscow we have 11 cocktails and we brought three of them to Berlin, to this lounge. We have the Smyslov [cocktail], the Fischer, and the Capablanca, based on Cuban rum.

If you're in Moscow and need a map to find the place, see club.worldchess.com. Hint: the map is under the banana.


A visit to the chess bar / Candidates 2018 (3:56) • 'Published on Mar 15, 2018'

Around the middle of the video, commentator Lennart Ootes asks 'Cannon', the Beverage Director of the Moscow Club,

Q: If you would make a cocktail about Alexander Grischuk, what would the cocktail look like? A: I guess it would be something with samogon. [Sasha] has the appearance of a typical Russian male, who has patriotic feelings, who believes in the best future for the nation, for the country, who could drink spirits like samogon, straight without the [mixers].

Samogon? Wikipedia to the rescue:-

Russia: The Russian name for any homemade distilled alcoholic beverage is called samogon, meaning "self-distilled", literally "self-ran". [...] Samogon is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the country. It directly competes with vodka, which is more expensive (in part due to taxes on distilled alcohol), but contains fewer impurities. • Moonshine by country (wikipedia.org)

For more about the Moscow club on Youtube, see Opening party of the World Chess Club Moscow (December 2017). For more about the chess bar commentator, who has other, similar videos on the same channel about the look-and-feel of the tournament venue, see About Lennart | Lennart Ootes (lennartootes.com).

Cheers!

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