Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours on February 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Well, after only 5 games, I am begrudgingly playing on for my county, then it stops… .
Yes, I probably will visit the Bangkok Chess Club in a fortnight but I won’t play much… .
No, I won’t enter the Bangkok Open in April… .
However, semi-retired is the future… .
Then we die… .
MJM
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Don’t ask me how but one of the two games I played for Luton whilst in recovery from my main accident, where I fractured my skull alongside a great very many other vicissitudes has been found, and here it is. I do remember the game, and do remember delivering mate.
And in case you can’t read it, here it is:
Mark.J.McCready
Shamal Mohammed
24/11/16 OU v Kents/Luton
MJM
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Clearly it is the case that a break from chess is long overdue, should such a thing indeed be possible?
With online chess banished, what do I do with OTB chess? OTB chess carries a sense of occasion which factors in social elements. Given that I am soon to relocate, and am keen to make new friends, is a break from OTB chess justifiable? Do I resign myself to being just a spectator, should I find a chess club where I am relocating too in the hope of gaining friends and acquaintances? Can’t I just limit the amount I play instead? What is more important? The social or competitive aspect of chess for me? Is a break a necessity or merely a preference? Is my judgment sound or poor? Why so many questions over something relativity insignificant?
Because it is contentment not improvement that is in play here; therefore, the social dimension of chess is significant, and to be factored in.
Whether anything will come about I don’t know. I’m more impulsive than I am rational. Not only am I far from your archetypal chess player, I’m also a lazy sod and a lazy git as well as being both shy and anti-social.
Of this there is no doubt: you will hear about it one way or another and quite soon.
MJM
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus
That atemporal stranger in a strange land -myself in Eastbourne- outright refused to go to the chess club tonight and vowed to never go down that empty lane again. Eastbourne? Yes Eastbourne, the quiet-city-by-the-sea, the city that is not only a noticeable improvement form Luton but is also kinda dead, kinda unable to respond to being Brighton’s smaller brother. I only played one game of chess last weekend -in London not Eastbourne- and that was enough to tell me that a break is long overdue.
So today I said to myself, ‘just say no’.…British people who, like moi‘, grew up watching Grange Hill in the 80s may have bells ringing here. They may say ‘but that song was about stopping doing drugs’ well chess is a drug, well kinda… .
I don’t watch live chess anymore. Isn’t it tiresome and depressing just? I stopped playing on-line altogether and for good, and there’s no more OTB chess planned anytime soon… .
Long may it all continue…continue on it may… .
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Luton Chess Club on July 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »
En route to the chess club for some of 91, I used to catch a bus here.
I used to listen to Gwar, especially the song ‘The Salmanizer’.
MjM 😀
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours, On-line journal on April 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I had a plan. That plan was to take the skytrain and enter the city. Stop off at my favourite Indian restaurant for a vegetable curry. Get back on the skytrain and go to my hospital for my medication (I have hypermania), then go to the chess club. But that way go it did not. Within minutes of getting on the skytrain I fell critically ill. My whole world collapsed around me because the week before (subject of The visit that never was) I suffered so immensely from my life being threatened that I have been in a state of near collapse ever since. All I could do was hang on for dear life on the skytrain, try my hardest to walk to the hospital, collect my medication, and go back home. It was not very pleasant to arrive at the station I was supposed to get off to go to the chess club and then watch it go by but I had no choice, I was so sick mentally. By the time I got home, it wasn’t even 7pm but I had to fall into bed immediately and lie still all night long. Being the true hypermaniac that I am, of course sleep was not possible, and yes of course it’s not possible tonight also and no it won’t be possible tomorrow night either but these are trivialities. Like I said in the previous post, when your life is close to being taken away from you, you aren’t going to like it and you aren’t going to know what to do. What I didn’t say was it’s not something you can just walk away from and expect to be as right as rain the next day either. And what I couldn’t say was how sure I was of what was happening around me. Was I so startled that I couldn’t see things straight? The answers are coming, the answers are coming, a conclusion will be created… .
Yesterday, I didn’t have the power to play chess. I felt so wounded. I felt confused. I just wanted to go home, close my eyes and make everything go away. I could not speak to anyone, not even my own daughter. All I could do was lie still for many hours, not even hoping that my wounds would heal. I cannot put into words how hurt I have been and if that isn’t bad enough I must wait weeks before I can learn if I have been left with a terminal illness too, one which will eventually destroy my immune system and take my life from me.
Mark. J. McCready, 02.13 am, Sunday April 30th 2023
A quiet and lonely place where I have cried most days this week, Laksi, Bangkok.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on February 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on January 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Next Friday I will go to play in a blitz tournament at Bangkok Chess Club. Next Saturday I will play in a Rapid Tournament. Next Sunday I will play in another rapid tournament in the city. Triple whammy in play.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on January 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Friday the 13th January 2023 it was but there was nothing ominous or sinister in the air at Bangkok Chess Club tonight. No appearances from Hollywood’s ‘Freddie’ but three schools rolled into town to promote upcoming tournaments, so we were super busy. I did the best I could to try and capture the atmosphere as well as thrown in some extra content for my own purposes. Enjoy.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on December 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Check out this #chess game: MarkJMcCready vs mostafa1981 – https://www.chess.com/live/game/65083870917
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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