It could be argued that the coverage leaves a lot to be desired, however, it is worth a watch -but only just!
MJM
Archive for May, 2025
World Chess Championship London Karpov v Kasparov 1986
Posted in Documentaries on May 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
1984 Phillips & Drew / GLC Kings
Posted in Documentaries on May 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The bravest move ever played?
Posted in Chess on May 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
You may watch the game or you may flash through it on the link below, either way I am not going to tell you what the bravest move I have ever seen played is, I’m sure you can work it out for yourself.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1956850
MJM
The 1990 World Championship Match
Posted in Documentaries on May 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Nine days to win
Posted in Documentaries on May 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Local, national & international
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on May 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
When those who emerged from the Bedfordshire League compete against one another in national or international tournaments it denotes attention. According to my research so far, the first instance of this occured in 1965 and can be found here: https://mccreadyandchess.wordpress.com/2024/12/16/the-red-corner-and-the-blue-corner/. Courtesty of some social media chat, I more recently learnt that all of the Ledger brothers have played GM Plaskett at national or international level, with all of the Ledger brothers achieving results at some stage or another.
IM A. Ledger v GM Plaskett British Championship 1997
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=1226047
FM D. Ledger v GM Plaskett Gibraltar 2003
https://chesstempo.com/game-database/game/h-james-plaskett-vs-dave-j-ledger/101052
S. Ledger v GM Plaskett Hastings 90/91 (no gamescore available. Refer to the crosstable: GM Plaskett No. 58 S. Ledger No. 96) https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/199012hast-viewer.html
Well done the ledger brothers for achieving results against former BMS pupil and British champion GM Plaskett.
Mark. J. McCready
The 2018 match
Posted in Chess on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »
For different reasons, united mostly by a sense of disappointment, the 2018 world championship match between GM Carlsen and GM Caruana isn’t well-remembered.
However, I enjoyed it and followed all the way through. The participants can be found in the video below discussing some of their games. Have they hoisted themselves by their own petard here? Better to say that honesty is the best policy, whether it be complimentary or uncomplimentary isn’t it?. Better still, that analysis is so often ad hoc or ad lib and based on calculation and recall in all its many guises, with a few extras thrown in!
If I had been participating and asked why all games were drawn in the classical format, I would have sung not spoken (see below) :-).
MJM
World Championships Analytics 6
Posted in World Championships Analytics on May 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
How did Karpov lose to this? White to play and win (it’s not hard).
Shelton appears on the map
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on May 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
In Reading Timothy Harding’s doctoral thesis ‘correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1914, a social and cultural history‘, which may be found online here Thesis, I learnt that Befordshire made an appearance on pg. 283.
Victorian England is the context, the chapter pertaining, documenting some of the difficulties and challenges female players faced back then in much detail. Fellow county chess players, if you look through what has been posted on this site, you will note that, locally, women were never written about regarding chess in Bedfordshire, however, this does not mean that chess was not played by women in Bedfordshire but rather that it was more likely played at home rather than at a club as was commonplace back then, the author claims. The post-modern historian Jenkins once wrote in his publication Re-thinking history that ‘history and the past are categorically distinct’, herein lies evidence and argument to that effect. Put more simply, just because something has been left undocumented, it doesn’t mean it did not happen.
You may find what is linked below of further interest.
Mark. J. McCready
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A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
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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.
Gallery
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- I’m either 10 or 11 here
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- 1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
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- At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
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- Pattaya 2011
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- 2011
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- Thai Junior Championships
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- Pattaya 2009
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- 2011
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- Kuwait 2008
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- 2012
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- 2012
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- 2011 BKK Chess club
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- 2011
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2013 approx
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- Around 2014
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- 2010
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- 2012
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- 2011
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- 2013
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- Around 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2020
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- 2011
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- 2013 or thereabouts
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- 2010
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