Posted in Chess on March 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Have you noticed how difficult it has become to say who the most famous chess player in the world is. It isn’t and can no longer be the world champion -that’s yesteryear. It’s one of the streamers as they have milions and millions of followers and are much more popular. What does that tell you? We are experiencing a 4th revolution -that’s what. Society is always subject to change.
M J M
Posted in Chess on December 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess, My own warped humour on December 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Cracking game in play here chaps, black’s position is jolly good but it is white to move, any suggestions?
M J M
Posted in Chess on October 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on August 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
In these wee hours, I rediscovered a game I have not looked at in 15 years or more, and so remembered little of. It surivived in the memory banks as little more than ‘GM Miles playing a strange game with the Dutch Defence in it against someone but who?‘ In reading -possibly re-reading- his autobiography ‘It’s only me’, it has been rediscovered -and yes it is highly unusual!
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266657
M J M
Posted in Chess on August 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Ever wondered how GM Kasparov plays these days and how strong he still is? Watch this and decide for yourself.
Can we agree he’s still got it?
M J M
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
Posted in Chess on July 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Take a look at this:
As it stands the world’s number 1 and 2 are Carlsen and Nakamura, with the latter following the former by also announcing a baby is on the way next year. Click on the following link for further information (you may find the video interesting also!): https://www.chess.com/news/view/hikaru-nakamura-expecting-first-child-with-wife-atousa-pourkashiyan
Two months previously, this broke: https://www.chess.com/news/view/magnus-carlsen-and-wife-ella-victoria-announces-pregnancy
Speaking from experience, I suspect their priorites may change or be altered with chess getting less time than it previously did. A celebration of life itself should always triumph over celebrations achieved in a board game right?
MJM
Posted in Chess, Humour, My own warped humour, Selected on-line games on July 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »
DISCLAIMER: as insomniac author of this post, I take no responsibility for any electronic device, laptop or PC blown up by running the game linked below through an engine you have installed.
DATED:
July 2nd 2025
SIGNED:
Look at this position:
It comes from this game https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1064810&kpage=3
The question is not who stands better but what will happen if I run it through an engine -I’m not doing it, I wouldn’t dare.
Marcus -Colombia
Posted in Chess on June 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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 