Posted in Chess on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I was about to post this in the Moves I Could Never Play category until I realized I saw which black’s best move was, as keeping the opposition looks paramount to me, so I guessed it correctly. More memories from facebook which have been long since forgotten. Thotsaporn, who comments, is rated aeound 2050 usually. I once saw him beat an Israeli IM with his pet line in the French Winwer once (Advance, Bogoljubov variation).
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
How good are you at finding mate in 30? Alas, I found out from fb today that I am not very good at all. Of course I jest but the winning move from one of Capablanca’s games I also could not find without even knowing it leads to mate in 30, well according to Stockfish 18 it does. Here’s what I posted on facebook 15 years ago. I have to say, Kg6, as my friend Khalid suggested, looks like the right move to me now but I am wrong. I must have seen the answer at the time to know what the correct move is. Endgames are clearly not my forte.
Lichess confirms that mate in 30 is afoot, which I can’t see.
M J M
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1900-1920 on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
In re-reading the post Our Clash of Future Champions, which can be found: here. I noticed that in Part 4 -The dimly lit view of our past, I argued that chess clubs were widespread accross Bedfordshire in the early 20th century. I do believe I have found the building where one of them met and played.
The Shelter is a reading room and can be seen below.
More information about the building can be found here: The Shelter
M J M
Posted in Chess on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Click on it for the full image.
Disclaimer This website is not responsible for any eye strain caused by viewing any of its posts!
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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McCreadyandChess 