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, Humour on June 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Courtesy of GM Levitt on ye olde fb, I was alerted to the following, highly entertaining video. Well worth a watch. I think it should go viral.
Regarding GM Levitt’s work, an example can be found here.
MJM
Posted in Humour, On-line journal on February 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If you are daft dedicated enough to have followed this blog from the hallowed antiquity which it emerged from, you may have noticed there isn’t a great deal of chess in it. Not in terms of games and analysis. That’s more unintentional than idiosyncratic since I haven’t played that much competitive chess this millenium, and not that much at all since my daughter Grace was born. Just blitz games down the club nearest and online stuff that I will regret having started for many years to come. All it did was alleviate boredom and make me much worse than usual.
Anyway omwards and upwards I go with my electronic friend but there is a lot that needs work on and adjusting to. You could say that since I stopped in 1997, I haven’t played much since, not really, not in terms of competitive chess. Nothing like the 496 games I played before I stopped. But that’s okay, I like how it’s going .
A whim which became little more than some ad hoc experiment has resulted in me playing aggressive sacrificial stuff when I don’t mess things up and are unable to. I’ve won 28 games only and nearly won many, many, many more than that. Computers don’t give up and throw the towel in like humans do. They also understand the importance of counterplay much more so.
But the very good news is, I know what needs to be done and that it will take time. I don’t need much assistance. And I won’t start the next millenium off like this one on the chess front if I continue to get into it (sincere apologies for the attempt at humour). As you know, very few live for 3 or more mileniums (that is also not funny but off the wall, so that’s okay).
If I follow this through, all that will come of it is that I will go from being an average club player to a strong club player but will enjoy it more. Pyrric victory is it? Not quite. Nietzsche would call it a manifestation of the will to power, which is principally a life-affirming entity/phenomena/drive (to use his term), which some not so interested in him might think that’s what he thinks intentionality is or something along those lines. I swear it’s got nothing to do with getting bored easily or lack of a better idea, let me make that very clear. Even if that were the case I wouldn’t be able to own up either‘
Most people are creatures of habit and comfort and how they experience chess doesn’t change so much over the years. In fact it is possible to redefine how you approach it and experience it even late on in life because its much more challenging and quite enthralling if you can get into. Thankfully for those with such an obssessive mindset, this comes by itself anyway…and so on we go.
Very soon if not with immediacy I will start posting and commentating on my games. This I will enjoy, then you’ll realize although I can talk a good game, I’m just an average club player really but a well educated one at that.
Ressurection not no ressurection is the sum total of it. Speaking of which, here’s a number you could have a sing along to down the boozer with someone on piano. Do have a listen. I swear it’s nothing like hardcore metal, more like, er chas and dave. And yes of course the title of the post is from that song, which I got into in April/May 1989.
Please note, I am well used to being told to drop the duff jokes all the time, so comments to that affect I can’t guarentee a reply to. If it drops to less than 300 a day, I might reconsider things…well maybe. Bob Monkhouse once said, ‘when I told people I was going up on stage they were laughing at me, but when I got up there, they weren’t laughing then’. One day I might just follow in his footsteps… .
England’s self-proclaimed funniest man in chess, and also somewhat sometimes playful, ends with the words ‘Be seeing you.’
Mark. J. McCready
Posted in Humour on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Chess is taken far too seriously, lacks humour and is overtly conservative, right? Just say yes whether you agree or not. There are no good jokes in chess.
Score out of 10 for how funny you think that is are most welcome.
Like fuck they are!
Me give it 7.
Posted in Humour, My own warped humour on April 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »
As you’ve noticed, I do have a sense of humour and like to mess about. As you can see below.
It could all be true right? 🙂
Posted in Humour, My own warped humour on October 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
How do we live out our day-to-day lives without incident? How do we keep ourselves clean and free from distraction or disaster? It takes some practice doesn’t it? And a constant need to rework things I would say. Minor slip ups in life are difficult to dodge, we all fall foul to them from time to time even though we tend to keep an eye out -this is life. Have you ever stepped in something you shouldn’t have? Most probably we all have at one time or another in our lives.
For further food for thought, take a look below at the picture of my good old self. What am I doing in this picture? It could be that I am bending over and having a good hard shit or I could just be happy to be home? A train platform is especially good for accidental backside droppings because many people use them and they are often in a hurry, which means they could skid in your shit. Now wouldn’t that be a delight to watch? Regarding the picture I have attached, I don’t think I was having a shit but I wouldn’t rule it out as I can’t remember everything I’ve done and it is true that I love for put down deliveries for unsuspecting others. What I would like you to do is look at this picture, decide what you think is going on and use that to improve your chess in some way. Above all else think: street, think: step, think: shit, think: chess.
Posted in Humour, My own warped humour on October 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
After the popularity of the last post, which had a cracking title and a definite contender for winner of the 2022 award for most hair-raising title for a chess post. Many have written in asking me to add more posts where titled chess players accidentally step in someone’s shit. In an ideal world we would just love to watch someone step in our own accidental shit releases everyday and capture it on video for family viewing on special occasions like Easter and Christmas. Not all of us have had the luxury of watching such videos as we grow up, and so to offset that I shall listen to the requests and rustle up another post. I may even interview some titled players and ask them if they ever trod in shit whilst playing chess and how it affected their game, sitting at the table and playing on with shit all over their shoes. I will report back any findings. And may I tell you from personal experience, if you get the chance to watch someone step in your shit, it’s much better if a woman does that believe me -they go all mad!
Posted in Humour on September 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Humour, My own warped humour on September 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Question for the day: ‘If you zoom around in fast cars across the city, could this help improve your rating?’
Posted in Humour, My own warped humour on September 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Should I continue on with this blog, I will introduce mental challenges with prizes to be won for the lucky person. The top prize is going to be a car and most likely that will be a tough challenge like solve mate in 1 but a real tough mate in one. The sort where someone with a FIDE rating of 1200 needs half a minute on the clock to find it and someone with a FIDE rating of 2200 needs an hour easily. I will have other prizes, like packets of crisps, pen sets, cheese grater, ironing board, ant killer, and even a chocolate fireguard. I should add that if your rating is over 2800, you can’t play.
More details to follow
Mark, you could be onto a nice little earner here. Just charge people one pound to enter and pocket the profit
Take their money and destroy your website in the process. Never look back.
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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 