Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
Capablanca speaks
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The coquettes reign on-line
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »
With chess traditionally being a ponderous and serious game, the online xanadu aka www.chess24.com, brings us the antithesis of that once more with Miss Tactics and Miss Strategy, both of whom team up for more Banter Blitz to tickle your fancy.
Miss Tactics – IM Sopiko Guramashvili (left) and Miss Strategy – IM Anna Rudolf (right)
They aren’t just a pair of pretty faces, both are titled and know what they are talking about. You younger guys ought to count yourselves lucky: when I was in my youth girls didn’t play chess, the only thing you could ogle was your opponent’s chair leg!
The link below should take you to the latest episode of banter blitz.
https://chess24.com/en/live/video/miss-tactics—miss-strategy-banter-blitz
The English Chess Implosion by GM Nigel Davies
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
A frank and honest article concerning the plight of English chess has been written by GM Nigel Davies, whom you might also know as one of Chessbase’s better presenters, if not the best. The title is a play on words with the naturalized Brit GM Murray Chandler’s book The English Chess Explosion.
Here it is: http://chessimprover.com/the-english-chess-implosion/
White to play and win via the distant opposition!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
More from Nunn, Understanding Chess Endgames 1, pg 35. Note that the solution is given directly under the diagram. Should you wish to solve it yourself, I suggest you scroll down slowly. There are four lines of text beneath the diagram, after which the solution appears. In any event its white to play and win.
It’s a bumper month for Yannick!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier has had a bumper month by beating Nakamura with some beautiful preparation against his beloved Kings Indian Defence, and then the current world champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen, who perhaps underestimating his opponent rated almost 300 points below him, played a move that is certainly not becoming of a world champion…but then what blunder is?
It is here that Carlsen plays 37… Rg8??
Is it me or does it seem that Pelletier has been around for ever?
For those partial to a little schadenfreude -in other words the entire global chess playing community- here’s Naka upstaging Carlsen on the blunder front against Caruana. The move that follows defies belief. How on earth can someone of his caliber play a move that you see at the lowest level of amateur games!
Nakamura (Black), has just played 6…f6?? I promise I’m not making that up. Check out the game below if you don’t believe me.
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/showdown-in-st-louis-nakamura-s-worst-game
Oh dear! You weren’t playing on auto-pilot and by analogy were you Naka?
Two reasons why we should admire Richard Rapport
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged richard rapport on November 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »
At present, the Open European Team Championship, held in Reykjavik, is in danger of becoming a cracking tournament with great chess aplenty.
The Hungarian GM Richard Rapport, who is arguably the most creative and entertaining super GM around has, hot on the heels of his exciting attempt to wipe out GM Mickey Adams with the King’s Gambit, had us on the edge of our seats once again with his colourful and kaleidoscopic combinations once more.
In becoming less patient about thrusting his f-pawn up the board on only his second move Rapport played 1 f4 instead. Oo-la-la monsieur his 2700+ opponent thought must have thought!
Rapport – Fressinet
Then on move 29 the supra-f-pawn moves to f5 with devastating effect.
After 30. …exf5, it is white to play with a winning attack to follow.
You can find the game here for now.
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/european-team-championship-open-2015/3/3/2
Here’s GM Danny King eulogizing over Rapport, go to 7.33 and watch the smile on his face as he begins.
GM Richard Rapport
Jeremy James
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Jeremy James, presenter of the BBC’s avant-garde show The Master Game, has sadly passed away. An obituary can be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/28/jeremy-james-obituary
Plays 1. Nc3 wins in 8 moves!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on November 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The following game can be found on pg. 34 of The quickest chess victories of all time by Graham Burgess.
R. Djurhuus – F. Liardet
Santiago 1990
1. Nc3 – Kramnik once played this.
1. … Nf6 2. d4 c5
3. Nf3 cxd4. Looks like a reversed Mexican Defence.
4. Nxd4 d5. Nothing too unusual so far.
5. Bg5 e5. Black’s last move looks a little suspicious to me.
6. Ndb5 a6??. As the author says, black is playing by analogy and runs straight into trouble.
7. Nxd5!
7. … axb5 8. Nxf6 1-0. If only all our opponents could be so accommodating!
Move of the century?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »
It is claimed that black’s next move was the best move of the 20th century, the game is, of course, Topalov – Shirov, Linares 98.
White has just played 47. Kg1, what should black play next?
Here’s the game if you want the answer.
Something to keep an eye on
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »
More needs to be said regarding the way it computes, nevertheless an interesting development.
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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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