Posted in Luton Chess Club on February 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A happy 62nd birthday to Damon Gene D’ Cruz, formerly of Challney Boys School and pupil of Tom Sweby as well as Luton Chess club and Bedfordshire County Team.
In 2002, Damon took me to St. Albans, to a lecture by Sir Patrick Moore on his birthday.
Happy birthday Damon (now based in Leicestershire)
MJM
Posted in My Own Games on February 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Around the hero everything becomes a tragedy; around the demigod everything becomes a satyr-play; and around God everything becomes–what? perhaps a “world”? Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil 150
Dual purpose intentions in play here; firstly, to challenge the demi-gods of Bedfordshire chess past because they challenge me (only so historically), secondly, to give myself real purpose to play on, to play meaningful chess if you like…
First up, a certain Peter Gayson. Dunstable’s first resident to play board 1 for Bedfordshire since J. M. Craddock 1 lived there one, two and three decades before him. He went on to play for Luton up until the 87/88 season and was board one whilst I played board four or five. ELO rating usually between 2150-2250, with a peak rating of 2281 and if I am not wrong, currently 2117 well so says FIDE. In English money that’s 188 (ECF-188 [2117-700÷7.5=188]). Peter is an FM and currently plays in the 4NCL for White Rose.
Pre-game thoughts? Despite being rubbish at chess, I gunned down an FM in Turku, Finland at the 3 beers pub in the student village -and that’s the only time I have beaten an FM. He was rated 2340 and I beat him with 1. f4 (which he accused of being very drawish after the game, which was his way of saying he like facing it hence his laconic play and overall lack of interest!). Prior to that, I drew with FM Dave Ledger in 93 in Luton. Dave played the King’s Indian Attack against me but didn’t open the position up, ran out of ideas and lost interest in it. Eventually it fizzled out to a draw. No other results against FMs were had. I’m bloody rubbish at chess anyway, so I’ll probably lose.
You may, if you so wish, find the game here, I am black.
https://www.chess.com/game/daily/623139629
And yes the title comes from one of Metallica‘s better songs and yes I wanted to include the line ‘sent here by the chosen one’ but decided against it for what are, perhaps, obvious reasons… .
Mark. J. McCready 06.45 February 16th 2024, Al-Fursan, Dammam, KSA.
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.
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