Posted in Humour, My own warped humour, Viz inspired material on December 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Soon to be hot shit off the press ‘Forgotten Secrets of Very Mysterious Openings’ by M.J.McCready, on the shelves after I recently secured a publisher. As you can tell from the title, it’s very much of the ilk for the genre of chess theory so I should make a tidy sum? Details of the publisher can be found below.
Posted in Humour on December 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Posted in My Own Games on December 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
A better word, better because it isn’t a term, is persistence. Swindling is, courtesy of modernity, becoming something of an anachronism me thinks.
Posted in Selected on-line games on December 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Selected on-line games on December 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Posted in On-line journal on December 23, 2020| Leave a Comment »
…and so I sit solemnly in the eve of this cold winter’s day, alone in contemplation as I gaze into a pale blue sky. And within that contemplation, a lament that lies luminated by twilight and not the end of twilight. And there the embers burn: the process of unlearning yields a greater harvest than the process of learning burns away until it dies, strangled by the cold that comes across the field. And why does this ‘acceptance of yours’ do that you may ask? For the very simple reason that unlearning consists of dialogue and self-correction for it is retrospective whereas the process of learning involves ill-gotten imperatives supported by the odd senseless, unreflective and over-simplified monologue. To err is human, yes indeed, to correct oneself is an indication that peer correction is no longer present, hence they burn so slowly for it is more drawn out, for if that be lost time, then lost time it be…
…and the light that burns half as bright burns half as long…
…and I cannot say how nor when nor can I say why or when but beyond the summer and autumn bluster I have taught myself what went missing in my play very early on is back and back to stay. It constituted a shift in style that went unnoticed and pushed me into more positional play before I gave up chess way back when. And the activity and directness with which I began only went missing until the process of unlearning and the persistence I pressed on with in those ungodly hours clustered above all that washed away below. It taught me that opponents crack under pressure, it taught me attacks on the king unnerves everyone, it taught me to never give up, and so I rediscovered the way forwards. Not consciously for it came about by itself…a long awaited return to the fold if you like. And it be this: active play, direct attacks, and only then gentle pressure with incorporated positional elements…with win followed by win followed by win…
…and the result is an enriched understanding of chess, sharpened thought processes, and a level of play above all others before, in sum I am playing by far the best chess of my life, and identity-conferring too, and with what’s planned soon to be scaled, I will reach my own summit. There is not much of that climb left now….and because of that: to sit alone on a soulless, blisteringly cold winter’s day is a subdued Nirvana…
…and time it waits for no man, my future it is revealed…
…and time it waits for no man, my fate is sealed…
Nirvana
Posted in World Championships Analytics on December 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Points for consideration: how good are white’s defences and how dangerous is his attack?
Posted in Personal Interest & Experience on December 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »
As we know, competitive chess involves travel. From the images below can you guess which publication has been plundered?
Not know the answer then scroll down.
Posted in On-line journal on December 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »
This year, I have played 1148 games on line, 99/9% of which were played from July onwards, so that’s about 200 games a month…
…it’s reached the point where commentary is usually understood instantly and beyond the board I have a sharp brain, as a doctor recently told me.
Posted in World Championships Analytics on December 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Who stands better here and why? White is in check, should he/she capture or move out of check? If he/she captures what should he/she capture with and why?
The game can be found below.
A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
Not perhaps, but quintessentially, Old Tom Sweby is best thought of as a passionate devotee to the newspapers he wrote for. He was well read and knowledgeable of the Bedfordshire chess scene and well beyond, given that he was the president of the S.C.C.U. once upon a time. He was generally well-respected and rubbed shoulders with many, if not all, of those eminent within British chess circles. It would, however, be a critical mistake to see his column is primary source material entirely. That it is not. You will also find secondary source material quoted too, and the reliability of that is not quite as Tom hoped. Given that he wrote for decades, this is to some degree inevitable, and after all we are all prone to error whether we realize it or not. Thankfully, with regards to old Tom Sweby, they are infrequent and for the most part old Tom continued to document events and developments in the Bedfordshire league from the get go as best he could but, of course, everything lies open to interpretation. Despite this, and generally speaking. this does indeed make him informative and thus worth reading. Dare I say his columns constitute a narrative describing the latest developments, match reports and changing nature of the Beds league...he knew his audience and wrote according. This manifested itself over decades but brevity was always in play courtesy of the restictions imposed by writing a column. Should you wish to read a in instrumental figure of the Beds' league post WW2, you are quite welcome to peruse what has been posted here... . :-) I should, however, point out that as the decades wore on he gradually moved on away from narratives concerning the Bedfordshire league towards affairs both historical and international. The reasons for this are multifarous, old age was a predominante factor presumably, however, the bottom line is with regards to how the Bedfordshire chess scene developed post WW2: old Tom Sweby is your go to guy. He wrote more about chess in Bedforshire than anyone else did but given he was a Lutonian and writing for a Luton newspaper there is both bias and greater coverage of his hometown than the rest of the county.
To add comments, please see the bell at the top of the page.
McCreadyandChess 