Posted in Life beyond the chess board on January 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »
A fellow who, the last time we played fell victim to his failed From Gambit, despite being so close to ELO 2200 at the time (much better than me, I’m just rubbish), once said. ‘The rook’s gotta go to a7 init!’ But then I said ‘Oh, really? And when black plays Rf6, what ya gonna do then?’ Got no reply. so where should that white rook go?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I was there, I played Black, it was a Ruy Lopez, Chigorin variation. I still remember his look at me after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 occurred, he thought ‘Should I play 3. Bc4 or Bb5’ he played the latter. His book on the Lopez back then was the best book still to this day written on it and btw yes he does have a 100% record against a certain GM names Gary Kasparov…no wonder I lost!!!!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points | Wins | Draws | Losses | Pen Pts |
| Luton | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Bedford C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Milton Keynes C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| Open University | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| Bedford D | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Northampton | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
Ha ha ha…why would that be I wonder?????
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours on December 3, 2016| 2 Comments »
Tell me why I don’t NOT like Mondays? Ha ha, no need to since the question is rhetorical.
It’s because on Monday next week I thought I’d saunter off down to some place called London and mill about in The British Museum. There, I shall meet former Luton player Nick McBride, and together we’ll have a look at the Lewis Chessmen.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/statements/the_lewis_chessmen.aspx
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Personal Interest & Experience, tagged Sargon II on November 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Who said that the current generation of players are ‘the computer generation’? Like as if it is they and only they? Was it those who were once described as a bunch of sycophant charlatans, educational hoodwinkers who conjured such a deplorable use of ‘the’, that being the definite article? Weren’t we all -way back whenever- at it wiv’ em? I know I certainly was before the bonce got bashed up… . Here’s the proof that helped the most become my school chess champion… .
I’m tempted to ask ‘Do you remember Sargon II?’ but I think the more correct question is ‘How could you possibly forget Sargon II?’
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours, tagged The McCready fellow just writes obscure stuff now., Why? on November 23, 2016| 3 Comments »
As a student of adversity, I’ve been stuck over the years how some people with major challenges seem to draw strength from them and I’ve heard the popular wisdom that that has to do with finding meaning and for a long time I thought the meaning was out there, some great truth waiting to be found but over time I’ve come to think that the truth is irrelevant. We call it finding meaning but we might better call it forging meaning…
Andrew Solomon
Taken from one of Manhattan’s greatest ever writers…if not the greatest, that being Andrew Solomon. The thing that distinguishes him is not just that he is so often at seminal moments in his texts and speeches unwittingly Aristotelian but rather that he is so modern, methodical and meticulous. Being an established journalist in the US and A’s top newspaper, he knows what his readers anticipate, having been drawn, collectively or otherwise, towards his literature for reasons which are both rationally informed and researched well in our modern age…I was tempted to say well-researched there but I’m neither a fan of compound adjectives nor metaphors to be honest… he is not just a man who is triumphant in the face of adversity, but surprisingly or not, also someone who has liked a complimentary tweet or two made about him by yours truly :-).
In returning to what was so long ago once ‘home’ -that being where I learnt to play chess- understanding what it once meant to be here and exactly what it means now is not easy. No longer can I consider it as home since home can no longer be ascertained geographically. If we rely upon the cliché that ‘home is where the heart is’ then home is wherever my daughter is so that I can be by her side, protect, love and educate her as every father should, then of course ascribing a location to home is thus otiose. However, life itself is perhaps more complex than chess given it is broader than our beautiful game and much more so the chess community you grew up in and have missed so dearly in more recent years, should you be overtly quixotic. Those thus tainted by the tragedy of its demise from that town you walked almost every road thereof. How do you practice when where you live is bereft of the club you spent so many evenings improving in or not improving in? It is no longer possible to find meaning within its walls, instead meaning must be forged… .
‘I am not an Athenian or a Greek. I am a citizen of the world.’
Spoken by Socrates in Plutarch’s ‘Of Banishment’.
Regarding the walls of thee old chess club I once knew so well, whilst drifting towards a draw in a league game long since significant, me and the team mate next to me had our opponents wander off together. Quietly and somewhat surreptitiously my team mate asked ‘Mark, what do you think to my position?’. I then said ‘It’s out of this world, its covered in bone, it’s out of this world, it’s covered in bone, out of this world, it’s covered in bone, out of this world, covered in bone, OUT OF THIS WWWOOORRRLLLDDDD, COVERED IN BONE AAARRGGGHHHH’. Boy did my team mate look confused, then get this, the chairman of the club came over and said ‘Oy! McCready what ya playin’ at?’ That was back when I used to listen to music during the trek across town. (Erm Mark, please don’t employ the word trek yeah. The last two of the three fatalities you somehow outplayed involve the word trek yes? Bicycle manufacturer and activity in Nepal yes?) I wonder what song such words come from?
‘Forging meaning and building identity does not make what was wrong right. It only makes what was wrong precious’
Andrew Solomon
God isn’t he gorgeous…oops, erm, irrespective of how badly you played or how instantly forgettable your opening repertoire once was, what you have learnt from is precious… .
‘We don’t seek the painful experiences that hue our identities but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment but we can endure great pain if we believe its purposeful’
Andrew Solomon
It is tomorrow that I must go to Milton Keynes and it is there I must play chess to win for Luton once more…once upon a time this I once wrote about a journey across Bedfordshire.
My team mate sat next to me had not moved since we’d left Luton. We mirrored each other’s posture and sat still as he took an interest in the serenity outside. Beyond the square windows of the car, an arbitrary county line went by. Further in the distance, the shining windows of a farmhouse blazed by a creek that wove among the fields in the hills, beyond valleys sloping into an expanse of time, where day and wild orchids blew across the B-road ahead.
Me, me, me, me, me, erm ages ago… .
What a day what a day it will be. How so exciting the manner in which darkness descends will be. As chess players we gain from our game how essential it is to think ahead, so I say, the experience will outlive the result or the manner in which I win. There is supposed to be a world championship match on but for now there is no world championship match, there is only the road ahead and that which lies beyond it.
Its game on tomorrow…ghettos exist we do not profit from them…just thinking of Milton Keynes now…see below.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »
What can we say about GM Lev Aronian, well we can state the obvious by repeating how well-liked, creative and brilliant he is. And his partner WIM Ariane Caoili, what can we say? She has it all, well-spoken, a pleasant personality, polite, a love of academia, and is obviously the most beautiful woman ever seen at a chess board. When I embarked upon an MA and saw her playing in London, not knowing who she was at the time I frowned, unable to believe could be a chess player because she’s too pretty and so I went over to her game to look at her position. She got out of her chair and we engaged in eye contact briefly before she returned to the board to concentrate, perhaps curious what I was in turn curious about. When I left the hall I walked out so slowly thinking “Is it really possible for a female chess player to be that attractive? Surely it can’t be.” And what does that mean you ask? Well, if you see her dressed up in her own attire she is fashionable and puts supermodels to shame with ease. When I first saw her I was glancing round the hall and wondered why she is sitting at a board as she couldn’t possibly be a chess player looking that great -I thought she was probably a model who just wanted to sit down for a minute, not realizing that the seat was already taken.
I never had the chance to go to Armenia whilst stationed in Baku but believed it to be culturally more interesting. You can see traditional dress below if you can draw your attention away from Ariane, which is not easy. What a fun day they are having on camera. A wonderful pair for sure.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Rapport shows the world once more what an original and inventive player he is by dismantling the current world number 6 with an attack and a 27th move that only he could find. Instantly across the net, especially on Twitter, GMs were in total disbelief. He is indeed so admirable, still my favourite player of today’s crop of GMs.
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/european-club-cup-2016/3/1/2
Life must be almost perfect for him right now, having got recently married.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged McCready goes into overdrive whilst brain damaged. on November 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »
…to die unsung would really bring you down
although wet eyes would never suit you
walk through no archetypal suicide to
die young is far too boring these daysHelmet -Unsung
Jeepers creepers! What the hell is going on here? Still brain damaged am I yet thy my brain bursts into overdrive all the time, crushing all opposition OTB effortlessly and frolicking with finesse. I put in a 2400 Elo performance last week even though it was only one day after my memory finally returned when some Faith No More was blaring out, animating me far too much to remain focused on my position as life was breathed back into me. Welcomed with open arms by the chess community at Heathrow upon my return home, instantly I played for my home town away to Northampton and the same thing happened again! But here is the so-very-strange-thing: in the opening and middle game my thought processes were under control but then they burst into a crescendo and blew my opponent away in the endgame AND I did not have to calculate anything or even look at the board!!!! HOW???? BAFFLING HUH????
your will to speak clearly
exposed too much
unsung once too often
could not rub offHelmet -Unsung
I have not played OTB in 18 months so HOW ON EARTH IS THIS POSSIBLE? HOW CAN IT BE? It’s because so much endgame theory is hardwired into my brain, that’s why; being the custodian of a network myriad of causal connections that, impervious to dissonance, embody the quaint literature stacked upon my shelves so queenlike for so long, for now, and forever more. It’s the second game within a week and obeisant Fritz showed my endgame play to be perfect once more, although calculate anything at all I needed not! 🙂
I am white. Under the kosh, black plays 29. Qd8 in hope of a queen exchange, and perhaps aware should I play 30. Qxf7, he will draw by perpetual check. However, I played 30. Qxd8 instantaneously without even looking at the board. I didn’t need to because my King position is so advantageous and his kingside pawns are isolated. Play was as follows 30. …Qxd8 31. Kf4 Rg8? From this point on I focused more upon the non-verbal communication my team mates expressed than my own position -in fact I never looked at the board from this point on.
Black plays 34. … Rxe4 and can no longer stop freddy the f-pawn from queening…unless he sacrifices his rook! All of which I foresaw at move 30. Too easy. I played 35. Kxf6 but was more engrossed by ex-world champion Bobby Fischer’s assertion ‘I don’t believe in psychology, I believe in good moves!’, wondering why he contrasts them given that non-verbal communication embodies thought yet lacks intentionality. Rather dilettantish don’t you think psychologists?
41. Kg8 and black resigns. The crescendo continued on for hours more…my re-emergence always brings victory to the team. Even the league champions succumb to defeat when I am on the team sheet, as was the case last year. The drive home was as dark as we were jovial, happy to be reunited and victorious once more! And boy, were they happy to see me still alive!
By the way, my opponent was so polite and respectful after defeat, even though I turned down his offer of a draw when he saw I had gone into overdrive albeit unintentionally, perhaps certain his own servitude would soon be enforced.
And whose victory was it that brought Luton Chess Team victory? MINE!!!! And what colour were you wearing? ORANGE of course -after all I am from LUTON!!!!! And what did it feel like when you blundered about an hour into the game by looking directly above at the ceiling, causing that brain damaged head of yours to lose all balance? It felt a bit choppy, like I was on a small ship crossing a stormy sea, as if I was going to be thown overboard into the car park outside, I was panicking, moving from side to side WITHOUT PAUSE!!!! And how long did that last? Erm, about 20 seconds, maybe more, I had to fasten myself to my chair to steady MYSELF!!!! Well seafarer, as my folks used to say WHAT IN TARNATION?!?!?!?!
I also wore a football shirt. COYH!
You must follow the music in the video below in which the surge in power the music undergoes as the song progresses is analogous to my state of mind during play and its own crescendo. You will soon learn how feeling indomitable is applauded by those whose propinquity to the grim reaper who got his ass kicked only two weeks ago was both untimely and, presumably, unforgettable.
Your contribution left unnoticed some
association with an image
just credit time for showing up again
attention wandered I’m left with itHelmet -Unsung
Marvel at those energy mounds building within the music by clicking below. The drumming @ the 3.06 mark is entirely in sync with my pulse just as I burst into overdrive.
That’s Helmet, en route to a county match in Peterborough back in 93 I spoke about them at length in the car. The driver -that being Steve Yates- frowned and thought at length over the steering wheel before telling me he knew ‘I like to listen to obscure bands’. Unsure of what his point was, I did not reply.
gone by sin too slowly
can’t pass it up
then i thought nothing is right
i turned it offHelmet -Unsung
My endgame play has the same impetus as the music @ the 3.01 stage, which is the endgame of the track, but like chess itself, it is better to play through it from from start to finish -if you want to be blown off your feet that is! And when I say ‘blown off your feet’ I do mean ‘blown off your feet’ (that’s why I wrote it!) -enjoy.
The brain damaged endgame expert McCready on the mend 2 Awestruck opponents almost lost for words 0 !
“A critique does not consist in saying that things aren’t good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based… To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy.”
Michael Foucault
Okay, if you thought things had got strange on this website lately, now they get even stranger. What is, even by my standards, right out there due to the very whacky American in it, in character. He gets so very strange towards the end, what on earth is he talking about???? Just look at how he loses it!!!! He offers us what must surely be the most deranged critique of 1990s America ever expressed! As I learnt in 92 whilst slumped in my chair and bored, that’s the sort of guy you don’t try to mimic, especially at the 2.52 mark -man that guy is right out there!!!!
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | |
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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