Posted in My own endeavours on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
On this day thirty-eight years ago, I played a Grandmaster for the first, but not the last, time. It was a simul yes. I was black, the opening was the Ruy Lopez closed, Chigorin variation. I was outplayed in the middlegame and lost. He did have a 100% record against the then current world champion Garry Kasparov, so it’s hardly surprising. He also wrote a critically acclaimed and very thorough book on the Ruy Lopez about a year before also.
Can you guess who it was?
M J M
Posted in Meme on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Here’s a game from two senior, well-read figures from the Soviet chess scene. As I am sure you know, Kotov’s most famed publication is Think like a Grandmaster. This game should be called Blink like a Grandmaster. I am sure he did plenty of that when the queen sac came in! I can’t sac anything, let alone queens. In this game, yes there are highly favourable conditions surrounding it but it still requires deep calculation above my level to jusify as white plays another 20 moves before being totally lost. I could not play 30. … Qxh3+ here, could you?
I found this game here: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/mfm6170.htm
Here is the full game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1084375
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Before Carlsen came along, my favourite player was Karpov. Unlike him, I am not able to put my opponent in zugwang very often, if ever, being a BM like Diggle. In the following game, Karpov plays the sort of move only he could and I most certainly could not as it doesn’t seem to do anything to me. Here Karpov plays 24. Ba7.
How deep do you have to go to see that is worth playing? Let’s look at the final position of the game.
Black is almost in zugwang here. Squeeze play like the title suggests. Way above my level. Note that Karpov was not world champion yet when this was played. The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067846
M J M
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
‘The new things are based and supported on sturdy old things, and derive a massive strength from their deep and immemorial foundations, though with such limitations and impediments as only an Englishman could endure. But he likes to feel the weight of all the past upon his back; and, moreover, the antiquity that overburdens him has taken root in his being, and has grown to be rather a hump than a pack, so that there is no getting rid of it without tearing his whole structure to pieces . . . as he appears to be sufficiently comfortable under the mouldy accretion, he had better stumble on withit as long as he can.‘ Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1862
At the time of writing, Bedford’s Ledger brothers (Andy, Dave & Steve) are playing for England at the FIDE World Senior (50+) Team Championships in down there in Durres, Albania. England has 5 men’s teams and 1 women’s team. The Ledger brothers are playing for England 3 alongside Laurence E. Webb, FIDE rating 2203. Details of the tournament teams and results can be found here: FIDE World Seniors. Local chess fans may like to know that I did ask GM Plaskett why he wasn’t playing and he told me that he wasn’t invited this time.
Perhaps history, of which most lies unrecorded, is more so about interpretation than facts,1 but I am not going to state the Ledger brothers are writing history by becoming the first brothers to play for England, as some evidence to the contrary may be found here and stops me doing so.2 Whatever is of utmost importance in history, we wish them good luck with their endeavours anyway.
The England that we love is the England of old towns, tilled fields, little rivers, farms, churches and cottages. If by violently marring the fair country and vulgarizing the shy old buildings we obtain so much less to love, what shall it profit? Without an England to love we cannot remain stout of heart and enduring.’ James Lees-Milne
M J M
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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