Archive for September, 2023

Some time ago now, perhaps a decade or more, I was tasked with finding a better location for Bangkok Chess Club, which I did. The one I found was described as ‘perfect’, and so I was invited to the opening evening (which I declined for a reason I cannot quite remember).

More recently, I spent a month or so at Luton Chess Club and although there was a strong sense of relief that my club has a stable home now, in becoming used to playing chess in pubic houses -which is what Bangkok Chess Club does- playing chess in an empty university library left me feeling rather flat. It felt like I was playing chess in a morgue, and so most evenings I left to go home early even though the library closed at 10pm.

If a rather unappealing choice of location wasn’t bad enough, it is also the case that the chess club is at the whims of the University too. That means next week there is no chess club because the University staff are going on strike. So the chess club is shut next week, like it or lump it. Why are they going on strike? They aren’t being paid enough, and want more.

I can’t say I am overly impressed by how things stand regarding my home club but also accept that just having a home itself is a noticeable improvement on recent years despite there being more room for improvement. Let’s hope it attracts more members and finds somewhere to play with a bit of life in it some time soon.

Just how comedic is this strike? Not as comedic as that which I have linked I suspect.

Me and the little one 2014.

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In returning home recently, and reacquainting myself with friends and former playing partners stretching back some 35 years and more, a few things stood out – one in particular.

I can’t say I am entirely comfortable as being seen as the ‘go-to guy’ with regards to the history of chess in Bedfordshire and Luton, but then no one else writes about either, so it’s understandable I suppose…if a little embarrassing.

On this site, you can can choose which category you browse through and quickly find documented evidence of the history of Luton Chess club, some of which is more than 150 years old already. We can agree, then, that I speak with some authority when I say that Luton chess club has faced upheaval and uncertainty many times before in its less than illustrious past. Much more recently, having no fixed playing venue and a pandemic putting the brakes on everything put the future of the club in serious doubt, difficulties compounded by the fact that I am most usually abroad and not unwilling but unable to take over the running of the club, as I have been asked many times over already.

Numbers dwindled to the point where we had to withdraw from the Bedfordshire league and almost folded the club -that’s how critical it became. That never happened and how much better things are now. With the patronage of the University of Bedfordshire in play the club has a premises to use and money for equipment too. There is, however, a caveat in play. And that is to fulfil obligations towards the university by opening the club up to the students who study there. What better way to do that than appear on Freshers Day for both the Luton and Bedford campuses and grab those just joining for a game or two, and giving them the info they need to join the club thereafter if they so fancy it! Don’t believe me? Well see the pics below of club members in action in both campuses and decide for yourself whether I am making it all up or not. (btw, etymologically speaking the term ‘campus’ means ‘field’ in Latin and is first attributed to the use of the field adjacent to the now named Princeton University in New Jersey, USA.)

Mark. J. McCready, 07.15 am Sunday September 24th

Al-Fursan, Dammam, KSA

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Bedford’s Neil Hickmann -who when we last met over the board was quick to point out that he always lost when we played was quickly reminded that in the opening game of the 93/94 season he did actually defeat me with the From gambit -has brought out a publication entitled ‘Memorable games of British Chess’, reviewed here:

Memorable Games of British Chess

As I read, I stumbled across the following passage.

I am very happy to announce that someday very soon, I shall veer away from the content I have posted more recently -often to shock and challenge the conservatism rampant in chess – and focus more on research, which I like doing.

Mark. J. McCready, 03:01 am, Friday September 22nd 2023

Al-Fursan (Fursan means knight in English), Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

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Soviet Chess Crossword

This took about 45 minutes to make.

https://crosswordlabs.com/view/soviet-crossword-2%5B/url%5D

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Angry chair

Stuck in the memories section of my fb account is this one from 12 years back.

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If you are thinking the title comes from a Nirvana song then you would be right but that’s not what the post is about. If you thought I am the only McCready in town playing chess then you would be wrong, and I can prove it.

If you click on the link below and scroll down, you can find an article written in 1940 in The New York Sun.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/american-woman-part-i

The McCreadys

Further information can be found here, once again you need to scroll down.

http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Women_in_Chess_1.html

MJM

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