GM Jan Gustafsson, all-round nice guy, huge fan of the Thai Open and the face of Chess24.com has put together an entertaining video. Enjoy.
Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
World Championship blunders
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on September 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Chess in da hood!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on August 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »
A playing hall to inspire?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged Vienna Open chess on August 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Peter Frost, a friend from Bangkok, has entered the Vienna Open and has taken a picture of the playing hall for us.
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, Vienna is a beautiful city, rich in culture and history. Would a playing hall like that bring out the best in you over the board on a hot summer’s day if it has no air-con and water is not provided?
The unlikeliest aficionado
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Any ideas on who this is?
Unsure? Here’s some video action please click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAjaeGMB51c. It is of course Russian GM Peter Svidler, who as you may know is a genuinely nice guy. I have known for some time that he is a fan of cricket but he doesn’t talk about it much. With that said I have found an interview from the Yorkshire Chess Association. It’s worth a read for fans of both games, here it is: http://yorkshirechess.org/interview-with-peter-svidler/#comment-10170
How to and not to describe the knight
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged Donner chess, knight moves in chess on July 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
How to describe the knight
The following pages are taken from Donner’s The King (New In Chess 2006). For those who don’t know Donner is a great writer with a style all his own, of which the following passage is typical in many respects.
Diagram from Rowson’s very good book ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’ (Gambit 2000), pg. 122. Question, if the knight is on the edge of a board, does it still move in a circle?
More on Donner here, https://mccreadyandchess.com/2014/02/24/the-love-of-wood
How not to describe the knight
William Ward (more on him to come soon) once wrote a much maligned Laws of Chess, here is his account of the knight:
‘The Knight may be moved in any direction from the square on which it stands to the next square but one of a different colour, passing over the intermediate square, whether such square be occupied or not.’ (http://www.chessarbitersassociation.co.uk/Laws1912.pdf) more information can be found in Edward Winter’s good site here (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/laws1.html).
We experienced players can probably guess what Ward wants to say but would someone new to chess understand Ward’s concept of the ‘intermediate square’?
Donner
Oops, that’s Donner.
The dangers of auto-pilot
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged auto-pilot chess on July 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Most of us play through the opening on auto-pilot, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing provided we are prepared. But when your opponent plays something unfamiliar and we continue to play what seem like natural developing moves, mistakes can be easily made. Take the following game for example, yet another howler from The quickest victories of all time by Burgess, pg 8.
M.Vokac – P.Bazant Czech ch (Turnov) 1996
1. b4 d5
2. Bb2 Nd7
3. Nf3 Ngf6
4. e3 g6
5. c4 cxd4
6. Bxc4 Bg7??
A reasonable set-up for black if it weren’t for the bishop on c4!
7. Bxf7! RESIGNS (with Ng5 and Qb3 to come)
An immortal game?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The young Chinese superstar Wei Ju has played an ‘immortal game’ apparently. Immortal, in chess terms means unforgettable. In retrospect such terms carry weight but for any game to be described as such within days of being played deserves the annotation (?!) pehaps that says more about the media culture that exists at present rather than the game itself methinks…um…well…erm…the good news is that it is a fantastically interesting game and may well never be forgotten. I shall say no more, here is Kingcrusher’s emotionally charged account of the game, you can decide for yourself what status it should have or go onto to have. Enjoy.
Old habits die hard…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 1, 2015| 2 Comments »
After having a break of over ten years from chess it is easy to convince yourself that you are something of a reformed character over the board, so I was disappointed with myself to see an old habit return, that of throwing in the towel before it’s necessary. I’ve been playing with the Lucas Program (http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/) a lot recently and decided to see how far up the ladder I could go regarding the numerous engines it has. I’ve made it to Chispa 4.0.3, which has a rating of 2227 but I can’t quite beat it. After a long game which I was only slightly worse, I reached the following position (I am black so black pawns go up the board) and resigned thinking that I couldn’t stop the f-pawn. However, I missed something, can you see what it is?
What should black play here after 53 f6?
53. …Kd7 doesn’t work as 54. c6+ and a pawn will queen. I looked at most but not all knight moves available, overlooking that if black plays 53. … Na4 he can, at least, draw the game. The point is that if 54. f7 Nxc5 55 f8=Q Ne6+ (and winning), white must play 55. f8=N
I assume that after 55. …a5 black is not losing.
After such a long game where I was slightly worse for most of it, thinking I was now lost, I stopped analyzing short of seeing the counter-intuitive 53. … Na4. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
It pays to have a title!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged Hou Yifan Bangkok on June 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Some of us untitled players may wonder whether being titled matters. It certainly does. The higher the title the greater the perks it provides. Take for instance when Hou Yifan, the then Women’s World Champion came to Bangkok to play in 2012. There was a $10,000 appearance fee generously paid by a local retiree (sorry, not allowed to name him), and a penthouse suite at the Dusit Thani for 2 weeks was provided also -free of charge of course!
In turn, there were a few duties to fulfill, such as a simul against a select few, a photo shoot here and there, and perhaps an interview. Thankfully, Hou Yifan made a genuine effort to win the tournament, which cannot be said for all Bangkok’s guest GMs, some of whom, in the belief they have already made their money, begin each round the worse for wear after a night on the town.
GM Hou Yifan, a pleasant person to meet.
A trap that has caught many GMs out whilst visiting Thailand.
A reversed From Gambit? Surely not!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged From gambit on June 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Some games defy belief. Having played 1. f4 for many years, I couldn’t help but laugh with incredulity when I saw this game on pg. 6 of The Quickest Victories of All Time by Graham Burgess (Cadogan). It is one of the funniest games I’ve ever seen, what on earth black was thinking about I don’t know. If it were a football match then we could assume he wanted an early bath!
H.Rost – J.Roscher corr. 1989
1. Nc3!? f5?! That’s not a good start as we Dutch Defense players can testify.
2. e4 dxe4
3. d3 exd3?!
4. Bxd3
If that’s not the daftest postion ever to be reached on a chess board then I don’t know what is. One more dubious move and black is lost. I understand the occasional need for experimentation but really… .
4. …Nf6
5. g4 (Nf3 is better) g6
6. g5 Nh5
If this were a true From Gambit, black would have little to worry about here if, I repeat, if he knows what to do as the g-pawn push isn’t anything to worry about.
7. Ne4 d5
8. Ng3 Nxg3
9. hxg3 Bg7?
Black had to play Qd6 after which he is holding with a material advantage.
10. Rxh7 O-O??
11. Bxg6 Qd6
12. Qh5
12. …Qe6
13. Be3 Resigns
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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.
Gallery
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- I’m either 10 or 11 here
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- 1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
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- At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
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- Pattaya 2011
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- 2011
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- Thai Junior Championships
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- Pattaya 2009
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- 2011
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- Kuwait 2008
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- 2012
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- 2012
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- 2011 BKK Chess club
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- 2011
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2013 approx
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- Around 2014
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- 2010
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- 2012
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- 2011
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- 2013
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- Around 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2020
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- 2011
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- 2013 or thereabouts
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- 2010
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- 2014?
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- 2010
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