Archive for December, 2024

Answers to Who Wants to be a Millionaire chess special 4

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on December 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

  1. B
  2. A
  3. D
  4. C
  5. A
  6. D
  7. B
  8. C
  9. B
  10. A
  11. D
  12. C
  13. B
  14. A
  15. C
  16. D

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If…

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

If there is one thing chess teaches us that is of greater value than all else, surely, it must be the importance of learning from your mistakes.

If we apply to life what we take from chess, imho in the paragraph above therein lies the answer.

MJM

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Chat with Peter Gayson

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on December 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows;
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

A. E. Housman, A Shropshire lad

80’s Luton board 1 player Peter Gayson talks bout pitting his wits against the toughest.

MJM

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Before or after?

Posted in Personal Interest & Experience on December 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

In chess you get letters before your name if you do well. CM, FM, IM, GM for example. Even though they are worthless outside their field, they are nonetheless a source of great pride for a great many and rightly so.

If you enter into academia instead, you also get letters but they usually come after your name -or at least they used to-, with certain exceptions such as Dr. Given that they are academic in nature, and embolden numerous transferable skills, which sounds weightier in terms of value? Should we frown upon titled players given that we have more letters than they do or should they frown upon us for having letters after our name and not before? Does anyone really care?

Which seem more cherished and why? What does that tell you? It seems to me that academics care much less about letters after their name as they tend not to be boastful about this whereas titled chess players are rightly proud of their title (even though its worthless outside of chess). Within chess, though, it is clearly advantageous on a number of levels, and generally speaking, holds greater importance than current rating, well for weaker Grandmasters most certianly, less so for the so-called SuperGMs. Whatever the answers may be amongst the very great many who do or do not play our beloved game the answer may be found in Nietzsche’s maxim ‘live by your passions’, which according to him, we all should be doing (note: not ought to be doing as that implies moral obligation which is not the point here).

Advice: should you encounter a titlted player and they point this out with statements such as I am a GM, you can always counter by saying something like, ‘no you are not, you are you, and whenever you bypass the normative aspects of what something is you invaribaly end up saying very little about it’.

As I am sure you know, there is snobbery in chess, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Ultimately though, everyone gets on just gets on fine and many refrain from defining themselves in terms of their titles, which to be fair, are identity-conferring.

All that aside, enjoy your chess. (ah, yeah and this just be me wanting to write again even though I don’t have much to say)

MJM

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The inevitability is axiomatic

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

…eventually I will return home, its only a matter of time…

…when I read Homer’s Odyssey in Summer 1993 I distinctly remember when Odysseus returned home there were many unwelcome suitors at his home, gaff much to his dismay…

…I wonder not if I will feel the same but I am unsure what will come of it all…

…technically speaking I am almost inactive and have been so for some time…

…I have become quite unused to competitive chess, whether I will resume playing is something I am yet to ponder…

…it is undeniably true in all eventuality I will resume some responsibility although the extent of that is likely to remain undetermined until my presence is felt…

…no doubt I will get shanghaied into something or other…

…1997 seems like a long time ago now…

…what’s most important of all is that it is inevitable, its just a matter of time…

…I had thought I would not return to classical chess but more recently realized, it is infrequent tournament chess pushing that agenda and not contempt for classical chess, more so being out of form through lack of practice…

….once a dream that I would return home to run my old club and county is, given the distinct lack of competition, not just a dream and more so a probability than a possibility…

…I cannot say when this will occur as it is contingent on other factors more pressing…

…as Arnie once said ‘I’ll be back’…just not quite sure how I feel about it yet.

…ah well 

…time will tell…

…above all else it must remain the case that those of us within Bedfordshire should continue to enjoy league, country, and national chess…given that theres always someone better than yourself, lets see how it pans out…perhaps it’s just a dream…

Mark. J. McCready, Mandalay, Myanmar

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Small victories with no cankers but with medallions.

Posted in My daughter on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It shouldn’t bother me but it does. What’s that then? How comes my daughter is attending more chess events then I am? Once again she’s off helping her mum out whilst I sit alone in a room in a city where I know not one person, with no action going down.

However, I graciously accept this because the more interest my daughter has in chess, the better I will feel. Long may it continue…I mean them assisting in chess tournaments not me sitting all by myself here, unable to get a slice of the action, as Aristotle once said: fuck that shit fuck that dude.

On and on it goes. We put the work in but there is no job to do. You could say we just do what we gotta do. Let us hope in the coming month there will be times where I can play chess and watch my daughter play too. I have time off coming up, so let’s see.

Yelling with my mouth shut: ‘the good news is Grace is getting more involved in chess now, small victories is what we are gettin’.

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Chess Special 3

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Unlike the popular gameshow, features such as ‘ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50‘ are inapplicable here -sincere apologies. Unfortunately, there’s no money to be made from this also. 🙂 However, do your best but do it alone please -no googling!

Question 1 £100

The only piece which cannot move backwards is which?

A: The Bishop

B: The King

C: The knight

D: The Pawn

Question 2 £200

The Persian term “shāh māt” refers to what in the modern term?

A: The king is in check.

B: The king has been checkmated.

C: The king has just castled short.

D: The king has been stalemated.

Question 3 £300

The third official world champion was whom?

A: Capablanca

B: Euwe

C: Alekhine

D: Lasker

Question 4 £400

In Bullet Chess, how long does a player have to make all their moves?

A: 30 seconds

B: 60 seconds

C: 120 seconds

D: 180 seconds

Question 5 £500

The controversial world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov which began in 1984 only to be stopped in 1985 after how many games were played?

A: 44

B: 46

C: 48

D: 50

Question 6 £1,000

The 47th Olympiad will be held in October 2028, in which city?

A: Abu Dhabi

B: Tashkent

C: London

D:New York

Question 7 £2,000

The Lucerna position is an endgame which is defined by which piece?

A: Knight

B: Bishop

C: Rook

D: Queen

Question 8 £4,000

The player once considered the greatest never to become world champion, Paul Keres, was born in and would be chosen to represent which county on today’s world map?

A: Russia

B: Latvia

C: Lithunia

D: Estonia

Question 9 £8,000

9. Which female world champion once lost her title to Xie Jun?

A: Maya Chiburdanidze

B: Irina Levantina

C: Hou Yifan

D: Judit Polgar

Question 10 £16,000
Bodens mate is carried out with which piece(s)?

A: Knights

B: Bishops

C: A rook

D: A queen

Question 11 £32,000

The Book A century of British Chess was written by whom?

A: J. H. Blackburne

B: H. E. Atkins

C: G. E. Thomas

D: P. W. Sargeant

Question 12 £64,000

“Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless”. Is a quote from which contemporary player?

A: Wesley So

B: Hikaru Nakamura

C: Levon Aronin

D: Magus Carlsen

Question 13 £125,000

Despite being the strongest team the Soviets claimed to have ever faced. England at the 1988 Olmpiad lost to which lesser nation?

A: India

B: China

C: America

D: East. Germany

Question 14 £250,000

Fabiano Caruana’s peek rating was in classical chess came in October 2014. What was it?

A: 2024

B: 2034

C: 2044

D: 2054

Question 15 £500,000

In which city was a tournament abandoned due to the onset of WW1?

A: London

B. Mannheim

C. Manchester

D. Berlin

Question 16 £1,000,000

Who is the only player to play both Lasker and Karpov at classical chess (simuls cannot be counted)?

A: Botvinnik

B: Smyslov

C: Reshevsky

D: Najdorf

There was are. This bring to a conclusion the third of three such attempts. Please don’t feel dishearted that you didn’t win money and get on tv -it was fun right? Do tell me how you got on.

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Answers to Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Chess special 3

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

1.D

2.B

3.A

4.B

5.C

6.A

7.C

8.D

9.A

10.B

11.D

12. A

13 C

14. B

15 B

16, C

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