I found the following problem on a chessbase post, where they claim it appeared in Shakhmaty V SSSR 1935. It’s white to play and win, chess artistry at its finest.
Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
Artistry by Kasparyan
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Welcome to Chess24. Have Fun!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged chess24 on December 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The latest attempt to create an on-line chess platform can be found here, https://chess24.com/. It is, of course, the eagerly awaited Chess24 site. Whilst photographing an event last year, I spoke to GM Jan Gustaffsen about it, he mentioned that a tremendous amount of money and effort had gone into developing it. I have to say, they’ve found a winning formula with it, almost immediately it becomes obvious that it is vastly superior to anything that has gone before it. It’s multi-platform, with too many options to document here. The main ones being; however, a playing arena with a variety of time controls, live broadcasts of major tournaments with commentary from the very best in the world, video series from some of the top names of the chess world, tactics trainers, specifically designed courses, and even a news feed, everything’s there all in one site! You’ll need to register but its very simple. The basic membership is free and adequate enough but you can go Premium for $99 a year, which I plan to do shortly. I only play 30 minute games, my user name being mccreadyandchess, my rating is around the 2100 mark at present. If time allows, I’m always up for a game….merry xmas.
Courtesy of MemoryChesss.
Another wintry afternoon…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »
It’s so cold outside and there’s nothing to do so here’s a few thoughts from last month… .
On the coldest day of the year, which had now reached early November, it rained in Baku without stopping. As I left work, I rode through the slippery cobbled streets of the old city, and when I passed through the ancient ‘goshagala’ (double gate) I was wet through to the skin already. Broad and straight, Azerbycan Prospetki, was under heavy cloud and slow with traffic, and to make matters worse, my phone had no credit. I had to call my wife to see if she was home.
Through the pouring rain I cycled, looking for a roadside kiosk, in hope I would see a pay phone amongst the grimacing piyada. It was not until I reached the chess club at the end of the prospekti that I did, though in truth I must have passed many before that. It would not accept the Qepik I used, and with the rain becoming heavier, I took refuge inside the chess club. The heating and lights were on full as a tournament was in progress. Remembering to put my phone on silent, I did not distract anyone when my wife finally called to say she could not leave her friend’s apartment because of the weather…it meant I had some free time to watch the play unfold whilst drying off.
The tournament organizer was a very kind old gentleman, who being intrigued by his foreign visitor, invited me to play in the following round. It began the following day at three, so I had to decline due to work commitments but he was good enough to teach me a few things whilst I was there. I now know the names of the chess pieces in Azeri, and they are as follows:
pawn – piyada (pedestrian)
knight – at (horse)
bishop – fil (elephant)
rook – top (gun/canon)
queen – fazir (advisor)
king – shah (king)
If you are a frequent flyer, you might ask yourself on arrival at your destination: ‘What is the greatest game of chess ever played in the city I am now in?’ Located in Baku, I believe I know the answer to that question. It took place in a building I recently had the pleasure of visiting whilst the 2014 Grand Prix was played out. The majestic cultural center on Rashid Behbudov street – or ‘the great composer from the east’ as he was once affectionately known as. The game in question is between the lesser known Rashid Nezhmedtinov, and Mikhail Tal from 1961. It is, if I may say so, an absolute cracker of a game. You can watch it below on kingcrusher’s very good youtube channel.
Rashid, from what is now Kazakhstan, is to the left. He was one of many Soviet players who liked to play for the win…I suppose when you are playing amongst the very best in the world and aren’t quite there yourself, that’s the best way, especially when rating points aren’t up for grabs from draws.
The future as seen from the past… .
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged Richard Eales Chess the history of a game on November 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »
You can find the conclusion (pgs. 195 – 196) to Richard Eales’s ‘Chess: The History of a Game’ below. It was written in 1985.
It is not primarily the task of the historian to make predictions. The history of chess is long and instructive, but it does not enable us to visualize where the game will stand a decade or a generation ahead with any confidence. Already there are new influences to take into account, such as the development of sophisticated computer chess programs. Computing will not make the chess player redundant, but its association with chess may well change attitudes to the game and its popular appeal (as well as providing competition for it in the form of new ‘computer games’). Nevertheless, some qualities of chess have been so persistent through the long history outlined in this book that they are likely to exercise a continuing influence over the development.
What are these qualities? First, as a complex game: chess has proved extraordinarily stable. Hundreds of years have passed, bringing with them new patterns of thought and leisure, and yet the rules of chess have altered hardly at all. In a thousand years of well-documented history there has only been one such major change, the one which took place c. 1475-1495. The game has moved geographically from culture to culture and remained similarly impervious; hence it was played in almost an identical way across the great expanse of the divided Christian and Muslim civilizations in the middle ages. Variant forms of chess have grown up in China, Japan and parts of south India and south-east Asia, but hardly at all elsewhere. With these exceptions, chess has remained essentially a single game, and has not been fragmented into many games each with its own local currency. This fixity of rule must testify to a constant element in the appeal of chess, something it has always been: an intriguing puzzle. Yet though chess has shown great stability as a game, even in different surroundings, its outward form – that of the conflict between two forces, both with a complex hierarchy of different pieces- has proved almost equally open to having external cultural meanings read into it. The chessmen symbolized the major elements of an army in early India and Islam; the ranks and degrees of feudal society and the state in the western middle ages. More recently some Soviet ideologists have seen in chess-playing a model for the ideal qualities of socialism and socialist man. In contemporary thought, interest in chess is polarized in different directions: towards psychologists and psycho-analysts or philosophers who find in the game evidence for the structure of human thought and motivation, or towards computer designers and programmers who have used it as a test in the development of artificial intelligence. This chameleon-like adaptability as a focus of cultural interest perhaps explains the historical popularity and importance of chess almost as much as its enduring game qualities.
In recent times though, competitive chess has been stripped of some of its ambiguities. Though it sometimes retains in the popular mind the image of a highbrow and exclusive mystery, it is increasingly treated as a treated high-brow and exclusive mystery, it is increasingly treated as a variant of a more familiar modern institution: the organized sport. Press and media portrayals of ‘typical’ chess players have abandoned the once popular stereotype of the eccentric old gentleman, lingered fondly over the newsworthy attractions of monomanic or cold warrior (Fischer, Korchnoi), before settling down to show simply competitive people who happen to be good at chess rather than tennis, swimming or something else. Many of the world’s leading chess players, it must be admittedly, are so incorrigibly ordinary that it would be hard to portray them in any other way. But the status of chess as a sport raises another major theme in the game’s history: the interrelation between popularity (‘quantity’) and technical and competitive progress (‘quality’) in its development. An obvious example is economic a professional players provide entertainment and instruction for an audience of less serious players, receiving support and patronage in return. Historically, the relationship has always been more complex than this, and it is often very hard to say why the game has been popular in one place or time rather than another. Certainly a chess master’s career can be frustrated by lack of a sufficiently numerous or educated public, just as much as that of an artist. It has been said that a great novelist should himself ‘create the taste by which he is appreciated’, and build up his own following, but often this is simply not possible, in chess even Morphy or Fischer (or the promoters of the Russian chess movement after 1917) needed a favourable environment in which to work if their individual examples were to have a lasting effect.
Arpad Elo’s correlation of recent international chess federation statistics on the number of masters and registered players in different countries provides no definitive answer to such problems, but it does show clearly that there are now more players and more and more very strong players than in the whole previous history of the game. This is not just a reflection of increases in national populations. Chess has spread rapidly outside its previous heartland of eastern Europe and the industrialized countries into the rest of the world. So far at least its involvement with computing has only aided its growth: computer programs have attracted new players without becoming so strong as to inspire the discouraging thought that the machine is unbeatable. At the time of writing, the higher reaches of competition are still well outside the computer’s range. The world champion is now firmly again in Russian hands, but after Fischer’s success in 1972 western opposition has been much stronger than in the 1950s and 1960s. In almost every respect, chess is better established now than ever beforein the paradoxical position it occupies in modern life: the only generally acknowledged sedentary (and cerebral) sport.
Across the Board -Season 2
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged aross the board on November 5, 2014| 2 Comments »
Dominic Lawson’s latest attempt to popularize chess can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04njstc . As was the case with the first series, a pleasant 15 minutes or so can be spent whilst listening, its usually helpful to play through the games too, all of which can be found on the BBC website. There’s something for everyone in the five episodes but I thought the last of the five was by far the most interesting in terms of the conversation and play over the board.
A learned Grandmaster
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged GM James Plaskett on October 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Bedfordshire’s finest ever player, GM James Plaskett, once decided that it was too difficult to make money in chess and tried showbiz instead. He entered the tv show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ and did rather well. When I last returned home to study, I spoke to friends about this, since his former teacher and mentor Paul Habershon still plays for Bedfordshire, and one of my friends remembers James very well, describing him as ‘learned’ from an early age, and likely to do well on such a show.
I found James’s performance to be intriguing on many levels, he seemed totally focused and completely unphased by the whole thing. The presenter Chris Tarrant didn’t know how to handle him at times, and showed great respect throughout I thought. I won’t say how well James did, or ‘Jim’ as he is known amongst friends, all I will say is that I only got half as far as he did, and I’m pretty strong on general knowledge. Anyway, enjoy.
(Video 1 – please go to 5.50 to Jim in action)
The last question which the author was able to answer.
Bedford Modern School. Though Mr.Habershon, still in the 190’s, beat my 1f4 when I was most active, one of his proteges, a certain Ben McFarlane, who had reached 170 before he left school was not so fortunate, resigning on move 28 if memory serves me correctly.
For a detailed account of James’s performance, click on the following link http://en.chessbase.com/post/james-plaskett-almost-became-a-millionaire
Is this how it’s done?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
You can find the winner of the ECF Chess website of the year here. http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/. It’s a nice site with a bit of everything, though I personally thought its presentation could be improved. Anyway, if you are involved in club or county chess and are a webmaster too, you might take something from the site.
Afterthoughts…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged Bangkok Open on October 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Those who played in the Bangkok Open this year can find the pdf for the tournament magazine here http://bangkokchess.com/downloads/BCCOpen2014-Journal-web.pdf. Peter has done a good job of putting it together. There are some nice interviews, and the pictures reveal just how international the tournament is. I am unable to photograph it anymore and won’t be able to participate for a few years at least, however, some photos are still in evidence, the cover was one of mine I believe. It is a tournament I will miss very much.
The Morals of Chess
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged benjamin franklin the morals of chess on October 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Whilst reading the truly wonderful ‘Chess: the history of a game’, by Richard Eales, I discovered that Benjamin Franklin once wrote an essay on ‘The Morals of Chess’. His comments show that he understood our beautiful game very well. The piece certainly reveals it age, his comments regarding ‘the rules of play’ made me chuckle. I would like to add that I am in concordance with the view that singing at the board whilst your opponent is thinking is rather ungentlemanly. After all, the last thing you want whilst deep in concentration is for renditions of the latest death metal number to waft across the board… .
You can find it in the Appendix on pg. 6.
http://www.benfranklin300.org/_etc_pdf/Chess_John_McCrary.pdf
Founding fathers of the USA or death metal?
A founding father of the USA or death metal?
Two wins & A draw
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The positions below are from Hodgson’s ‘The Chess Travellers Quiz book’
1) Wahls – Bjarnason Malo 1986, white to play and win.
2) Gogolov – Varshavsky, Luksena 1967, black to play and draw.
3) Pagilla – Carbone, Argentina 1976, white to play and win.
Answers to come soon.
-
Recent Posts
May 2026 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 29 30 31 Archives
…on what this site initially became…on what this site is now becoming…on what this site cannot become…
Categories
- Academia
- Bedfordshire Chess
- Chess
- Chess in Thailand
- Dear Ken
- Documentaries
- FIDE
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1900-1920
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1960-1980
- History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1980-2000
- History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century
- History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 21st century
- Humour
- Kasparyan
- Life beyond the chess board
- Luton Chess Club
- Meme
- Moves I could never play
- My daughter
- My own endeavours
- My Own Games
- My own warped humour
- On-line journal
- Personal Interest & Experience
- Postmodern History
- Quaint Chess History
- Reflections
- Reviews
- Selected on-line games
- Sources of inspiration
- Tournament Chess
- Trivia
- Viz inspired material
- Who wants to be a millionaire chess special
- World Championships Analytics
Posts which McCready is mighty pleased with
Luton & The University of Bedfordshire Chess Club
Tuesdays from 7.30 pm, The Library, Ground Floor
Please go to:
https://www.lutonchessclub.com/Blog Stats
- 32,564 hits
-
Join 39 other subscribers
-
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.
Gallery
-
- I’m either 10 or 11 here
-
- 1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
-
- At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
-
- Pattaya 2011
-
- 2011
-
- Thai Junior Championships
-
- 2008
-
- 2011
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2011
-
- Pattaya 2009
-
- 2011
-
- Kuwait 2008
-
- 2012
-
- 2012
-
- 2011 BKK Chess club
-
- 2011
-
- 2011 Thai Open
-
- 2011 Thai Open
-
- 2013 approx
-
- Around 2014
-
- 2010
-
- 2012
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2011
-
- 2011
-
- 2013
-
- Around 2011
-
- Around 2011
-
- 2020
-
- 2011
-
- 2008
-
- 2011
-
- 2013 or thereabouts
-
- 2010
-
- 2017
-
- 2014?
-
- 2010
-
- 2024
-
- 2024
-
- 2024
-
-
To add comments, please see the bell at the top of the page.
McCreadyandChess 