Posted in Quaint Chess History on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I managed to find a picture of the St. Albans team that came runners up of British Schools Chess Championships of 1978.
I was only 6 then, and so I don’t know any of the team personally. The less than flattering team result can be found in the S.C.C.U Bulletin of that year too.
An account of the route to the final can be found in the school yearbook below.
MJM, Colombia
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
GM Reshevsky is the subject of my most treasured trivia question, that being ‘who is the only player to have played both Lasker and Karpov in classical chess?’ (factor in simuls and Botvinnink can be counted also), as no one ever knows the answer.
Anyway, here GM Reshevsky plays a move that I interpret as being provocative, having had an Austrian FM play something very similar against me once during a blitz tournament, in hope I would burn up time in trying to refute it (which I did). Blitz permits such risky moves to some degree but classical chess?
Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t last very long given the strength of his opponent. The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1145474
A detailed analysis can be found in ‘The Mammoth Book of The World’s Greatest Chess Games’.
MJM
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
J. M. Craddock was British Boys (U-18) champion 1929-1931. I take particular interest in his games because for a while in the 50’s he lived in Dunstable and played for Bedfordshire. Here he dismantles British champion Mir Sultan Khan, who brought it on all himself in my opinion. The move below played by him is either extremely brave or downright foolhardy, one of the two -not a move I would dare play. Castling long, looks natural on one level as black has king safety issues, but that said, Khan is subject to an attack which he has no answer for, making castling long look premature perhaps?
Given white has prised open black’s king almost, it seems like a good move in principle but is either premature or just unprepared I think. Why? White never gets an attack going himself and struggles to hold on before capitulating in a horrendous position.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1956229
It’s often been said that amateur players have a tendency to castle mechanically but Mir Sultan Khan was hardly that, having beaten Capablanca in fine style a few years previously. Perhaps he took Craddock all too easily, switched off for a moment then paid the price for doing so? Understandable if so but not quite what you would expect from the reigning British champion.
MJM
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The first player whose games I studied was Morphy, how long after that I am unsure of, but second was Nimzowitsch. He’s known for his system and the unusual moves he made in adherence with them, mysterious rook moves being among them. In the diagram below we see one of his dumbfounding moves, which is far to deep for me to play. I could not jusitfy such a queen manœuvre unless it was decidedly beneficial to a detailed plan. It looks so passive, almost a waste of a move, I couldn’t play it. The plan implemented is far too deep for me.
Very deep and rather obscure but helped win him the game. Why is another question. In his book Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances since Nimzowitsch, IM John Watson makes a strong argument that Nimzowitch won so many games not because of his ideas and system but rather he was simply much better than his opponents. There I am inclined to agree.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1007465
MJM
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Some positions are so complex tactically, I can’t get very far with them -and here’s an obvious example. Like all those destined to remain so massively under 2700 ELO, I can only guess what black should play in the position below. The move chosen doesn’t look the best but what would I know?
The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1009910&comp=1. Far too above my level to follow. I do recall Adams was just about the best there was with the Marshall Gambit at his peak.
Once more, and perhaps for the last time, this position comes from a game in a publication I bought over a decade ago, and have only recently re-read.
Mark
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Karpov was one of the all time best at bamboozling opponents with quiet moves that seemed relatively harmless, only to prove that they weren’t. The move below is one of my favourites of his. Most opponent’s would think something like ‘he thinks Nf4 is coming maybe he’ll play g3, he can’t move another piece backwards, surely?.’
I have studied this game at great depth many times over the years. You can find it here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1022951
It’s in Karpov’s first publication of his games, although I have to say his analysis of it could have been more extensive. However, the depth of positional understanding in play by Karpov is so great, his opponent never stood a chance. Have a good look at 19. a3 if you don’t believe me. Play through it and ask yourself how an attack with a lone knight and a couple of pawns against 2 knights, 2 rooks, and a queen, as is the case after 37. Nc7 can succeed and why. That’s Karpov there or thereabouts at his best in my opinion. Poor old Bagairov.
MJM
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I prefer not to allow my opponent’s pawns to queen, so the move below I could not play. Black wants a rook on e8, that I get. Control over key diagonals too but does white have to be so accomodating? Looks good for white in terms of initiative but defendable for black after going a rook up. Appears to require a transfer of advantage by white of sorts.
As if anyone could see that coming. The chances of that are much lower than the next world champion being told he’s got a bun in the oven before being crowned in the closing ceremony. Here’s the game anyway: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266208
Regarding this game, again refer to a favoured publication of mine.
Mark. J. McCready
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Stiff upper lip in play here: what one Englishman can do, another cannot. McShane won a brilliancy prize for this game and violated an accepted endgame principle with the move below; that being move your king towards your pawns in the endgame, not away from them.
The reason for this move is to bring the bishop to g7. Alas, I am not good enough to evaluate correctly if this counter-intuitive looking move is playable as it also costs black material immediately. Given that Nakamura’s following move looked very logical but was also frowned upon by the engines, and soon followed by resignation, no wonder I couldn’t see how strong that move McShane played is. The game is a true classic, as mos twhich win brilliancy prizes are, but tough indeed to work through all the tactics…super tough actually.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1565814
Mark. J. McCready
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I feel obliged to show my all time favourite move. Has there ever been a braver move played? Commentating live, Evgenij Miroshnichenko called the game a masterpiece. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Probably my all time favourite game courtesy of this move. Against Giri of all opponents also.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1956850
MJM near the equator
Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
In this game someone got thwacked and it wasn’t Tiviakov. But much to his credit, his opponent did manage to soldier on for another 33 moves after the devasting move revealed below.
Even if I had 430985723409853659867230498750239457 minutes left on the clock, I couldn’t find that! The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1369212
Again, with regards to this game, I refer to the publication I bought in 2012, just before my daughter was born.
MJM Latin America
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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McCreadyandChess 