Archive for October, 2026

On this day -sadly about as good as it gets!

Posted in My own endeavours, On-line journal on October 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Once again Facebook has brought back memories but some of them are false!

2020 was a tough year indeed. That blasted Covid came and wreaked havoc. I got stuck in Bangkok and was indoors for so much of it with nowhgere to go, little to do and travel restricted heavily, so I stayed at home and got into online chess big style, as so many did. From March to December, I played about 1500 games online, won numerous tournaments and even started playing for my country.

The one tournament I remember in particular happened on this very day, October 31st. It was the first time I played for England. Having competed so much that year, I was much sharper than usual, and on form for once, even though I wasn’t paying much attention to the games played. England versus Finland it was, and the match, a series of blitz games, lasted a couple of hours. Because I was competing so much then, I wasn’t too fussed about it all and didn’t take it very seriously. My concentration wavered all the time as I listened to the band A Flock of Seagulls (my favourite pop band) all match long and kept delving into my media player to play songs during the match, as the screenshots below can testify.

First, the preparation (not very professional!)

More Facebook content (also not very professional)

Content from Lichess which confirms that I did do well but my performance rating was only 2022, which is lower than what I remember but still about as good as it gets for me. If you look at the ratings of the players in the top 20, you will see that they are all way above me though. Aside, I perhaps should explain that my username is still the same for Lichess. Olc is Gaelic for evil!

LiChess content (not very impressive!)

https://lichess.org/tournament/6URIgVK1?player=olcmarcus

Lasltly, if you look at the ratings on those in the top 20, it is clear I performed well with 7 wins out of 10 but what I misremember is that most of my wins were against opponents rated lower than me rather than higher! So this is nothing to be too proud of but it is me at my best for online stuff pretty much. The surprising thing is that for OTB chess, it’s Finland again! As whilst studying there in 1996, I beat an FM, and that, sadly, is about as good as it gets for me!

Happy Halloween from moi!

M J M

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Moves I could not play 49

Posted in Moves I could never play on October 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of friend Mark Ruston, Londoner and IM slayer, I have been alerted to a miniture played by GM Dubov, one of my favourite players. As I am sure you know, GM Dubov’s main coach was GM Morozevich, another favourite of mine, and he is known for his sacrificial chess. My favourite all time move in chess was played by him and can be found here. In the game below, the move 9. a4 is played.

White plays 9. a4 here. This move is rather deep.

Firstly, I am not a 1. d4 player so I don’t know how to play against the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. Secondly, I am not strong enough to play a move like that. Black can choose to push on b4 or gobble up pawns in the centre and capture on a6 with his bishop if necessary, can’t he? I am not strong enough to see that the rook can be deployed to d4, at which point it looks to me like black is suddenly in a world of trouble and required to play very precisely, especially if he castles kingside. With the rook on h4 black looks soon lost to me without accurate play, which in a rapid game is, of course, impossible.

The computer analysis shows black isn’t doing too badly until 17. Nd5, as is shown above, but who would want to be on the wrong side of that sort of attack anyway? One false step and its curtains, as proved to be the case.

You may find the miniture here https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2439171

M J M

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On this day…

Posted in Chess in Thailand, My own endeavours, On-line journal on October 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

On this day in 2011, I can be seen playing chess in a top I brought in Japan whilst on holiday, and some cap bought somewhere in Bangkok, probably MBK, in the quality facebook video below: I wasn’t even a father then -my how the time has flown!

Regarding the game per se, I have no recollection of it whatsoever but I can tell you that my opponent is Thotsaporn Thanatipanonda, who I have been friends with for many years. He’s usually rated between 2100-2200, and I have seen him beat strong titled players before including a strong Israeli IM once with his pet line in the French Winawer (Boguljubow variation). Thotsaporn, or Aek, now Lecturer in Mathematics at Mahidol University where he does research, would normally win our games. Chess enthusiasts may note that the very talkative Irish FM Colm Daly appears playing in the video also.

If you can make it as far as the 1.50 mark, you shall see that I don’t look too happy with my position as it is rather lost! I do have to say though that I like this video very much, as this is the most expressive I have ever seen myself over the board!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GmqKB7pBH/

M J M

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Moves I could not play 47

Posted in Moves I could never play on October 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In not being a professional player, deep prep is not a path I ever go down. Unsurprisingly, then, the move shown below, that being 13. …Rxc3, is not one I could play. Yes of course I know that such exchange sacrifices do occur in that defence to the extent where they are considered thematic, especially with the Dragon variation but the move below is not part of a position which has a bishop on g7 beaming down on the queenside, and black’s minor pieces are not set up for immediate counter-play either, so there’s no quick attack coming. The level of expertise required to pull that off against someone rated 2660 at the time was very high indeed, and obviously way above my level, along with everyone else on the planet!

Kasparov plays 13. …Rxc3

This is a truly great game by Kasparov. It’s a shame he had to ruin things by shooting his mouth off after it (not exactly the first time he’s done that, please do you own research on that if you must). I would imagine his Armenian mother would not have been too pleased. You can find the game below.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1287630

M J M

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Moves I could not play 46

Posted in Moves I could never play on October 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Last month I had the great pleasure of meeting GM Wesley So at the most recent olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

I was quite touched by how polite he was to me, even asking where I am from -a true gentleman. Since then I have thought I should make more effort to look at his games and quickly remembered which one stood out the most. It was televised in 2016, when Kasparov made something of a comeback in blitz and took on the world’s best. I watched how this went horrendously wrong against GM So, and so GM Kasparov did not last long in the game. In looking at it again, GM Kasparov plays 17. …h6 in the diagram below. I could not play that move -it looks too suicidal to me! I think he wants to play f5 and stop Ng5 or something but his pieces are poorly placed and he’s now moved all his kingside pawns! Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t last very long here.

Here GM Kasparov plays 17. …h6

I have to admit, I did like how GM So played the moves towards the end of the game, they were clearly well calculated winning moves but played as if they were tactical ripostes almost.

The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1820152

M J M

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Moves I could not play 45

Posted in Moves I could never play on October 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In my teens much if not most of the chess world was polarized over the K-K matches. I never did side with Kasparov back then, mainly because I found his chess to be too tactical and hard to calculate, whereas Karpov had a tendency to opt for quieter moves and quieter positions. They were not as hard to get your head round as the positional elements of his play were easier to appreciate than solid, hard calculations involving powerful tactical threats. In the game below, Kasparov defeats his first challenger after Karpov, GM Nigel Short. In the press conference to that match he said ‘My opponent for this match is short and it will be short. This game partially explains why he might have thought that I think. The way he plays the Botvinnik set up in the English is quite something, then he sacs a pawn, then a knight to seize the initiative. In the position below, GM Kasparov plays 28. Nxb6. I could not play this move as I could only sac for an immediate and obvious win, which clearly isn’t coming.

GM Kasparov plays 28. Nxb6

I ran this through the engines but what they show doesn’t help much as they cannot tell what impact the sac had a GM Short and the demands it placed -quite huge I would imagine. It’s clearly not a winnning move, so they engines show, but it required very accurate play by GM Short to avoid defeat, which he could not maintain.

Some analysis of this game came be found here. To me this game shows a noticeable difference in strength between GM Kasparov and GM Short.

The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070502

M J M

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On this day…

Posted in Chess, My own endeavours, My Own Games on October 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

fb throws up more interesting content. It doesn’t look like I have got much better as the years have gone by.

M J M

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Moves I could not play 44

Posted in Moves I could never play on October 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Marcus the reprobate1 has nothing better to do early on a Sunday morning than look at a game in which, as I remember it, GM Carlsen looked more depressed in the postgame analysis than any other I’ve ever seen him comment on and play through. It was at the London Chess Classic 2010, which I had the good fortune to attend whilst completing my Master’s Degree. I’m such a lowlife I even messaged a friend about this game this morning, and as can be gleaned from the chat, I’ve become so hopeless at chess, as time has gone by, I am reliant on engines now to make sense of it all -what a life!2 Please note I cannot upload the voice messages shown below. Mark is very working class like me and they are full of swear words and lots of other foul language!3

On with the game. GM Luke Skywalker McShane plays 18. Nc6 here. I could not play this move. I would focus too much on the immediate tactics involved here, which do not seem to achieve very much in any of the lines I thought -and yes the engines seem to agree. What I cannot see is that 18.Nc6 allows white to reposition the knight to b4 and thus eye the d5 and a6 squares and how important that becomes, as it helps white to maintain a stranglehold on the queenside, which helps result in a decisive advantage soon enough.

The engines don’t seem too convinced by 18. Nc6 but I think it’s a good move. The evaluations in the positions to follow show that black is soon lost, admittedly however, some of his moves weren’t the best -so speak the engines!. You may find the game here.4

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1602060

M J M

  1. Marcus is my chess inspired namesake, which for well over a decade already I use in life more than my real name, which is Mark. It mostly comes from Marcus Misson. More about that can be found here. I am writing this post because I was supposed to go to Tashkent this morning but a change of plans by a colleague has left me with nothing much to do today instead of chat about games online with mates. ↩︎
  2. In the Autumn of 1989 I discovered who The Sex Pistols were and have liked punk ever since. London still has punk rockers in it today who look the same as they did back then but in the many documentaries and social media clips surfacing about them they are accused of clinging on to the past, and are often asked if the only reason they are still into punk is because they couldn’t find anything better. I cling onto chess for this very reason. I couldn’t find anything better to do ever and have got stuck with it. I love to write about it but have hardly played in well over a decade already. This has come about because I can’t find anything better to do in life for the most part but also because I can’t admit I’ve never achieved anything in chess and should have left it behind long ago. This is why I am such a down and out but also well suited to chess in some respects. ↩︎
  3. The foul language came about because whilst talking to Mark I became resigned to admitting I have nothing better to do with my life than look at old games I once remembered. The language worsened when I became sure the game is not as I remembered it, and didn’t quite go as I thought it did. The language worsened further when I realized I wanted to go out, get drunk and listen to music, as it suddenly became too difficult to reflect upon anything. It should added that whenever Mark and I chat about chess, it is usually very negative and often has lots of swear words anyway. This is because Mark and I know many criminals in the English chess scene, almost all of them in fact, and it’s quite normal for us to slag them off and throw insults about. It’s not just us. Many other chess players we chat to from England also do this (names withheld for the time being). ↩︎
  4. Please don’t comment on this post. I’ve been told all my life to stop taking the piss but I just can’t. I’ve been beaten up many times over it by kids at school, kids on my street, family members, members of my chess club, participants at tournaments and also arbiters. It won’t do again good to complain about this post! Just see it as a consequence of getting bored easily or something. ↩︎

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Moves I could never play 43

Posted in My daughter on October 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

GM Mariotti, Italy’s first GM, was an interesting player and fellow. I’ve had an interest in him and his games for a long time as he played in my home county Bedfordshire in the 70-71 season whilst still an IM. I have spoken to him about that since, but alas he told me that ever since his heart operation he isn’t able to remember anything about his past life.

Here’s a game of his where he defeats Pal Benko with the Wing Gambit in the Sicilian Defence. White plays 26. Nxf5+ in the diagram below, a long term piece sacrifice which the engines are not critical of, given his position is assessed as already slightly inferior and does not worsen. I can’t see where the win is coming from exactly, so I couldn’t play it,

White plays 26. Nxf5+ here.

As mentioned, I did run it through the engines, well the analysis board on Lichess I should say.

It gave him an attack and then Benko cracked under pressure and blew it, allowing mate in 4. Here’s the game.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1785932

M J M

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To be richly rewarded…

Posted in Chess on October 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I met a colleague today for lunch. He told me that the Uzbekistan National Team could be seen on tv today, each receiving a check for 200,000$, a house and a car. Here is the evidence.

https://zamin.uz/en/sport/223015-200-000-a-house-and-a-volkswagen-uzbek-chess-players-receive-grand-rewards.html

M J M

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