The content below has been gleaned from the S.C.C.U Bulletins only.
Archive for July, 2025
Bedfordshire County Results 1958-64
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on July 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
More on Mardle’s debut for England
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on July 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The post created last year, Tom’s old friend plays for England (please use search bar), details Dennis Victor Mardle (of Luton, Bedfordshire) and his debut for England. Further information regarding that match has been found here on page 7: https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBulletin_1959_8.pdf.
M J M
Inspiration from footballers
Posted in Chess on July 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The ECF have once again alerted me towards something highly amusing. The Brentford footballer who just signed for Manchester United can be quoted as such: “Even if it’s not physical, there is a lot of thought in chess,” said Mbeumo.
Just look at the insight there -astonishing!
M J M
A sad end to a great man…
Posted in Quaint Chess History on July 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I personally met Glynne many times in Hitchin in the late 80’s and early 90’s and spoke with him on the phone on numerous occasions. He was always happy to hear there would be a team of players from Luton joining his tournaments when we spoke and found him to be affiable whilst running the show at Hitchin Boys Grammar School for his 5-round Swiss events which attracted many of the best players in the country. An account of his life can be found here.
M J M
County results from the 1990s
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on July 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
These results are all that can be lifted from the S. C. C. U news bulletins, that is the primary source and only that.
M J M
Drawing a blank on board one
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on July 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I have no recollection of this whatsoever. I can’t imagine that my rating is correct there but perhaps it is. Don’t remember the event. Couldn’t even tell you where the location is without looking on the map. Taken from the S. C. C. U bulletin May 1993.
M J M
Moves I could not play 18
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Even if shown it by Topalov prior to the tournament, as McShane claimed was the case back then, I still could not play this move. Unsurprisingly, long term exchange sacrifices are not my forte, only pawn sacrifices I can do if push comes to shove.
Great advert for English chess, and shows how immensely strong McShane was at his peak. A fogotten old favourite, still too above my level to grapple with.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1669470
M J M
Moves I could never play 17
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »
In the position below I would be more inclined to lament over being under the kosh than what I should play next. A sort of ‘Blast it! Just play anything and expect to sac back at some point‘, said under one’s breathe to oneself whilst lurching over the board, psychologically defeated. Which moves are better than others, that I don’t know. Defeat for white looks inevitable to me despite him being a piece up -I stand to be corrected of course.
Somehow connected to saccing back presumably. The link to this long forgotten game is below.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1010744
Analysis (suggested) can be found in the forgotten publication ‘The Mammoth Book of The World’s Greatest Chess Games’ by Burgess, Nunn, and Emms.
M J M
Moves I could never play 16
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Since I used to admire Spassky’s old trainer Tolusch, who has a game in Cafferty’s book on the Soviet Championships, where he drops almost everything on the queenside and has to walk his king up the board in the opening before resigning, I try to avoid doing it myself. Without extensive opening preparation, something club and county players like myself are rather shy of, I could not play the move below, and would assume Kd1 is the safer bet. The alternative is so committal, you would have to be very sure it works to play it.
As mentioned, without extensive opening preparation, how could you play that? Personally, I prefer the king to stay on the back rank if possible. The game is rather interesting though, showing capitalising on an out of play queen can be decisive. ‘Sax and violence’ they call that in the link below -good title.
For concrete analysis, it can be found in one of the many publications I have purchased over the years and also forgotten all about, that being ‘The Mammoth Book of The World’s Greatest Chess Games’ by Burgess, Nunn, and Emms.
M J M
Moves I could never play 15
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
All games played by those above ELO 2700 with three rooks offered up in nine moves are easy enough to follow, right! But the first instance, a full on rook sac by Karpov, is far too above your average club player like me.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1069169
This game is described as Karpov’s immortal game in several places, and the tournament victory is considered one of his best, if not the best. Unsurprisingly, the move above and the game itself constitutes entertainment only for most of us.
MJM
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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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