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Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
Locating your nearest club.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged nearest chess club england on October 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Seen but not heard
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged kasparov karpov montage on October 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Just when you finally get a day off during the week, the latest international tournament to roll into town just had to have a free day too. So what better way could there be to spend a day than lounging around watching archive footage of ex-world champions whilst the little one runs amok with her new shopping trolley, the last of nanny’s birthday presents! Whilst flicking through a few playlists, I came across a montage showing the rivalry between Kasparov and Karpov. It’s well edited, there’s a lot of great footage, and the music is quite listenable too. A nice way to spend 15 minutes for sure.
Underwater Chess
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged underwater chess on October 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »
For the lads the tropics is a great place to laze around on the beach whilst trying to pull scantily-clad local girls but for us real men its an ideal place to turn our backs on society and play some underwater chess instead. In the linked video, two machismo IM’s turn up, swap their thick goggles for scuba masks and go to war in the aqua waters of Curacao, much to the delight of some bemused tourists.
The footage, however, contains scenes which will cause uproar amongst hardcore chess purists. There’s so many fish in the water that it’s hard to follow the action, and a stingray went unpunished by the arbiter for swimming over the board whilst the players were deep in concentration. Obviously, it should have received a verbal warning at least. It’s hardly surprising that no one has played underwater since the video was made in 2008 given the etiquette of the marine life in it and the double-standards employed by the officials. Yet again, its one rule for marooned International Masters and another for the occasional passing stingray….when is FIDE going to get its act together?
NB Chess fans suffering with high-blood pressure should seek medical advice from a doctor before clicking on the link below. Discretionary viewing advised.
May the force be with you.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged lucas chess on September 29, 2014| 2 Comments »
If you were thinking of splashing out on some snazzy new software like Komodo 8 then think again. You can join the dark – or light- side with Lucas chess instead. It’s free, open source and has a great GUI. It’s user friendly and there’s lots of options. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder why people pay for software. I very much doubt whether I will purchase Fritz again.
http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/index#
MemoryChess
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged MemoryChess on June 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Just when you’re sure that facebook is nothing more than an insidious American invention not worth signing up for, along comes some guy and constructs the largest, most impressive image bank of chess on the planet with something for everyone and much, much more, and then places the whole lot on it -typical!
Anyway, its called MemoryChess and is easily found, now existing as a community of around 7000 to date. There exists thousands of images that you won’t find elsewhere, all neatly placed into albums of various themes. There is nothing on the net that can compare, I assure you.
From the album Love Chess@MemoryChess
I Love Chess!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on June 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Long Kasparov Interview
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged kasparov interview on May 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »
If you are a Kasparov fan, you can find an interview lasting around 90 minutes here:
It’s from 2012 and worth a watch.
Premature resignations and a tricky mate in three.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on May 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »
I was having another look of Invisible Chess Moves the other day and found an intriguing tale on page 109. In the position below, between Flohr and Grob 1953, white resigned but there is a defence. Can you see it?
This time we have Capablanca against George Alan Thomas, Hastings 1919 (pg.152)
After 29 Qa8 black resigns although he has a perfectly playable move, which is what?
And lastly, (pg.147) there are many mates in four but only one in three, can you find it?
You can find the answers in the post below.
Chess News 4: Americans create million-dollar chess program.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on May 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »
An interesting and well-written article concerning collegiate chess in the US has appeared in The Washington Post. Though the sums of money involved may seem ridiculously high, not everyone puts a price on success.
Answers to positions above:
1) Kh1. If Qf1 then Bg1!
2) Rxa2!
3) Rc3! If Kb8 then Kb6 with mate to follow.
Chess and E-mail
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged International E-mail Chess Club on April 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »
War: what is it good for? Absolutely nothing…well according to Edward Starr, though I’d be curious to hear his take on why after 500 years of peace, all Switzerland ever invented was the cuckoo clock… but perhaps such comedic, undergraduate afterthoughts are best left for another time? How about the internet and its ensuing digital revolution: what is that good for? Absolutely nothing other than wasting a few hours everyday and winding up a few fellow chess players online? Not true. Although on-line chess certainly has its pitfalls. Personally, I avoid the main sites as the etiquette of many registered leaves a lot to be desired.
When chess was booming in the late 70’s and early 80’s, after the Fischer and Spassky match, correspondence chess was popular across the globe. Even the best literature of the day, such as Webb’s Chess for Tigers contains a highly useful chapter on it. But as the popularity of chess has waned since and sought electronic formats as well, correspondence chess has suffered accordingly, with only a few die hard fans propping it up these days. Our modern age offers a middle path though, chess by e-mail! If you click on the following link you can find the International E-mail Chess Club, of which I have been a member for about two years now. http://www.chess-iecc.com .
How it works is that you will be paired up with someone within 200 points of your rating. After that you correspond with your opponent and send each other a move within five days of the last. The website is for those who enjoy their chess. There are no annoying little kids, cheats, and people who become rude the second they start losing. There are no frills, its just solid chess for those who love their chess. The site is run efficiently, it is rare that a problem of any kind occurs.
However, I should point out that there are principal differences between chess by correspondence (electronic or otherwise) and over the board chess. I’m not a professional player by any means so I cannot talk at great length. The only advice I can give is to read Webb’s Chess for Tigers. The principle difference, I’ve noticed, is that there is no -real- time constraint as in over the board chess, so you should expect your poor moves to be punished, if you yourself do not use the time available to you. I’m constantly surprised by how consistent the play of my opponents is. Correspondence chess is great for tuning up your skills of analysis and many who play it regularly calculate well. One of the reasons for that is, I think, that you are working with a real board yourself rather than sitting staring at some snazzy interface: though as Webb mentions, an important caveat is when analyzing, its easy to set up the position wrongly if you have just spent days looking at sidelines…I think I’ve already lost 3 games through doing that because I was so caught up in my own analysis.
If you are uncertain of the importance of the digital revolution, then how about a short interview by Lucianio Floridi? An admirably self-confident man who I got to know for a short while whilst studying.
http://philosophybites.com/2009/06/luciano-floridi-on-the-fourth-revolution.html
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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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- 2010
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