Mate in 21 if you will.
Archive for the ‘Chess’ Category
Bends the mind doesn’t it?
Posted in Chess on April 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
GM Boris Spassky passes away
Posted in Chess on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Two days before this post was penned, our tenth world champion, none other than Boris Spassky, sadly passed away, aged 88.
A well-written obituary on him can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/28/boris-spassky-obituary
All my favourite players are Soviet players and I do so wish he had beaten Fischer in 72. Regarding the Soviets; Karpov being my favourite outright, Spassky being second favourite. He was a great character and full of life, there are many funny anecdotes about him. He once offered Kasparov some amusing advice, which I am happy to show here.
An anecdote of Spassky’s appearance at the 1984 Thessanoliki Olympiad:
| In a bus, on the way to the games, Boris Spassky was introduced by a friend to one of the anonymous Olympians. When they were about to part, Spassky’s friend told the Olympian not to wash his right hand in order to keep some of Spassky’s power for his game. As a result, the chessplayer won his next game in good style. He immediately came to Boris’ friend to tell him that his advice was absolutely correct. Now he will not wash his right hand until the end of the Olympiad. This happened in the first rounds of the Olympiad. We believe from that moment Boris Spassky was busy shaking hands with other chessplayers! |
https://olimpbase.org/1984/1984in.html#trivia
Whilst still at school I remember his account of the reasons for his divorce to his first wife Larissa also amusing. In referring to her he said ‘we were like bishops of the opposite colour.’ This can be located in Mike Fox and Richard James’s The Complete Chess Addict, a read highly recommended, and found online easily enough also. Sadly, I never had the chance to meet Spassky or go watch him play… .
Here are two games of his I admired in younger years:
A larger than life character who, by the way, always confessed he was not a communist but was nonetheless treated well by his government and granted the status of emigrée. When I was young I always thought he seemed the happiest of all the Soviet champions.
R.I.P Boris and thank you for all your wonderful games and evervescent love of chess.
Mark. J. McCready
A truly great advert for chess.
Posted in Chess on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Can this be not worth a watch?
Posted in Chess on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I can’t say I agree with the methodology, it’s very poorly researched, and the conclusions are, consequentially, rather ridiculous… .
Mark. J. McCready
A question containing an inherent ambiguity, perhaps…
Posted in Chess on February 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Crafty McCready is at it again with trivia Q’s geared towards discombobulation than being answered. Here’s the latest. Care to give it a go do you?
2 loves 1 question
Posted in Chess on June 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I am at it again. Conjuring up questions on forums I think no one can answer. This question is the second time I have recently asked something connected to music -the thing I love the most. Do you know the answer?
Chess marathon
Posted in Chess on June 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
In the current Norway Chess tournament, two friends are trying to break the world record of 60 hours of non-stop chess. Rather them than me.
A less tricky question and a trickier one
Posted in Chess on May 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I posed another question on the forum I often contribute on but this time it has a googleable answer. For those outside the UK, the question pertains to England.
Then I went and asked one trickier.
Mark. J. McCready
The post Kasparov Karpov
Posted in Chess on May 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I am by no means an expert and may well be wrong here but do forgive me for thinking that what you see below is not how Karpov used to play when he was young.
Into astounding sacrifices by Englishmen in the 80s are we?
Posted in Chess on May 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Are you into the sort of game where one of the very best in the world gets absolutely massacred by a devastating sacrifice? Do you like watching kings run for cover in the middle game with resignation being the only form of escape?
Game 1 Beliavsky V Nunn, Wijk Aan Zee 1985
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1103322
Game 2 Plaskett V Miles, Lugano 1985
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1097818
Mark. J. McCready
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A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
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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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