Posted in Chess, Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours on July 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Firstly, I’d ask not to do that with myself as getting murdered is actually one of my pet hates! But do have a go at the quiz I have linked (note: non-English chess people may find it hard) Time expiration is only a month. There are twenty questions.
Mark. J. McCready
Room 7096, Intown Holiday Hotel
PattayaSaisong Soi 11
Pattaya
Posted in Chess on June 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »
If you are following the concurrent Goldmoney Asian Rapid, you’ll know that in the first round of Day 1 our world champion Magnus Carlsen was beaten by the teenage sensation Alireza. You can find an analysis of the game here:
I think this game tells us who the next world champion will be. It doesn’t tell us when although perhaps we can all agree it won’t be anytime soon, most likely at some point in the next 5-10 years.
Enjoy.
MJM
Posted in Chess, Humour on June 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on March 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on January 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on January 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on January 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on January 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
If you saw the very American The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix you, like many of us, probably found certain aspects unbearably painful to watch for various reasons. And so what better way to take a look at the mainstream media than to hear it from he who would know better than anyone in terms of the games played. World Champion Magnus Carlsen does a good job of exposing many points which we just would not see in high-level competitive chess.
Posted in Chess on January 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Chess on January 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »
If black plays Nh7 here, who is likely to emerge victorious? It looks like white could simply just take the knight and then queen one of his pawns, but should he/she do so he/she shall find themselves checkmated on the double.
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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