I don’t wish to cut myself as a lonesome figure but it is 0212. I just woke up and grabbed 4 hours sleep, now another dark room with the sound of the A/C is all I have. Yes social media is helping because everyone else is asleep but I sit up in bed, alone. I’m not in the right frame of mind to play chess, just annoyed I didn’t sleep longer. A dark silent room with everyone asleep is why I come online. No chess, just chatting to some girl I met…she says she is lonely. This is my life: dark hours leadened with silence and the sound of the A/C. I have no one to talk to here, everything is closed. I am online.
Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
A/C
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Dear Ken 1
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Welcome to Dear Ken, an agony uncle for those in need of advice.
Dear Ken, thank you for your advice column for troubled chess players. If I may ask for your help with a current issue please.
At our club there’s this guy who comes and always wears the same clothes. And I swear he never takes a bath because the smell he has is shocking. No one likes him and no one talks to him. I don’t talk to him but I don’t dislike him, I just want to keep my distance.
Last week he caused real trouble. We were away to The Bedford Massive, and one of their players went to his car during the match and got a baseball bat. He then came in, went up to the guy who doesn’t wash and smacked him round the head with it during his game! Things got ugly, they weren’t happy. They got some proppa gangsters in that outfit and some hardened criminals. They said next time they are bringing shooters, and they meant it. I don’t want anymore trouble. What should I do?
KEN: ah well, best thing you can do is take shooters yourself, then you could have a good one gun fight during your next match with the Bedford Massive, liven the match up a bit. Simple.
So Ken, your saying I should carry shooters on match nights?
KEN: Yes.
2am wins
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours, On-line journal on July 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I lie here in the dark. I played chess at 2am and won. I am detached from everything around me. I didn’t go to bed last night. I didn’t eat yesterday, I just lie here looking to connect somehow. I’ll admit loneliness has haunted me my whole life but this is just something else. I am in our hotel by the seaside. In the next bed my daughter sleeps with her mum, and there’s me, winning at 2am in this dark, quiet, well air-conditioned room with no one to talk to, and no energy to do anything else. I’m in my 50s now…why is everything in life too easy. I love myself. I love chess. Darkness engulfs, I should try to sleep. I have medication for that. Let’s see if I can swallow my alprazolam then sleep some….what else is there to do?
As you can see, I came under sustained attack. (Click below)
https://lichess.org/f5mso9tAKBlx
Mark. J. McCready
Room 7096, Intown Holiday Hotel
PattayaSaisong 11
Pattaya
Have a stab at the English
Posted in Chess, Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours on July 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Firstly, I’d ask not to do that with myself as getting murdered is actually one of my pet hates! But do have a go at the quiz I have linked (note: non-English chess people may find it hard) Time expiration is only a month. There are twenty questions.
Mark. J. McCready
Room 7096, Intown Holiday Hotel
PattayaSaisong Soi 11
Pattaya
Know your Soviet chess players do you?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on June 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Could you spot a soviet chess player in a crowd? Well could you? You have one month to play and find out. Just click on the link, enter a nickname and off you go. The platform is Kahoot. The faster you answer a question, the higher your score becomes. It’s like a finger first type of game where speed is the vital component. There are 16 questions. Sadly, it can only remain active for one month, So you have until 10pm July 27th to give it a go.
Mark. J. McCready
Room 7113, Intown Holiday Hotel,
Pattata Saisong Soi 11
Pattaya
‘Only the good die young, all the evil seem to live forever’
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Life beyond the chess board, Luton Chess Club, My own endeavours on June 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
‘The moon is red and bleeding, the sun is burned and black.’
I can’t begin to tell you how colourful and oftentimes chaotic my life has become, having been abroad for 22 years now, and visited some 36 countries along the way (many of which I worked in more than once). But the day when it is time to head home will one day come.
‘Time it waits for no man my future it is revealed. Time it waits for no man my fate is sealed.’
When that does happen, when I am a retiree of sorts, I will reach my rightful place. It’s only a matter of time before I become the Secretary of Luton Chess Club and also President of the Bedfordshire Chess Association.
‘If I cancel tomorrow the undead will thank me today.’
Administrative roles and obligations have been in place for the online versions of our club for some time now, the history of our country has been in my hands alone for many years, moreover in a bid to revive the club, much advertising will take place here. Moves are being played.
‘The demon in your mind will rape you in your bed at night.’
Lyrical encores aside, I am unflustered by what lies ahead and do not lie awake at night, erm…well singing Iron Maiden songs. The diagnosis is, I will live forever and am not ‘too evil’ to be the club secretary (when that day comes). More honest chaps might ask, since I won’t die young, can’t I run the thing from abroad…and perhaps I can.
Evil updates soon to follow…oh and lastly, do enjoy the song below (it has a chess reference).
Mark. J. McCready
11.15am, June 30th.
Room 7113, Intown Holiday Hotel,
Pattaya Saisong Soi 11
Pattaya
That one-year hiatus explained thus broken…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours, On-line journal on June 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Sincerest of apologies in not posting for a year. In truth there are conditions the service provider insists upon, which leave me less than impressed at times…it wasn’t that I didn’t want to write or had nothing to say, it was just that…
…and now those conditions have been, begrudgingly, met I am back although I have had to change the website name oh-so-slightly, since some slippery Russian went and stole my own whilst I was away! (thieving b******d)
…in short I will post throughout the summer since the afforded break from work presently allows me to do so….
…that’s all for now. I have poured my heart and soul into this site. I do hope you read on, and so cheerio…I shall be seeing you!
Mark.J.McCready
June 28th 2022
Laksi, Bangkok
Strength and weakness
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on January 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Following elite chess is far from easy for a number reasons, some of which are more obvious than others. If I can’t work out how the mechanics involved then at its highest level chess is most likely to remain something of an enigma. If you’re an academic at heart, lamentably a philosopher, then the altered perspective involved in judging individuals by their character and not their ability makes it all the more harder. Of course there is an ethical dilemma involved which is not easily overcome; namely, to what extent should professional and private lives be kept separate? And although some of those in the elite adhere to the classical stereotype of what a chess player typically is more than others, until we invest time in understanding, and not just judging their character, the waters are left undisturbed and opaque. GM Hikaru Nakamura was not particularly well-liked for a long time, mainly because he had a distinct habit of pulling faces over the board but once you get to see him in action and follow him through his youtube channel, then you can see him very differently indeed. In the clip below we can see Hikaru playing to his strengths and succumbing to his own weaknesses. Being a man of the world I can tell you exactly why Hikaru is tutoring the young lady below but perhaps that’s best left unsaid…
Number one again?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, On-line journal on January 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’m becoming concerned here as I prefer to engage in the workings of machinery rather than the appearance of them. What lies below isn’t an accurate reflection of how things are. Representing my county online and being the top player in the team depicts the absence of those who count more so than show who is present.
Cherry Drops
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on January 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The confectionary I couldn’t play chess without once upon a time. Cost -55p: rating increase +5.
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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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- 2011
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- 2013 or thereabouts
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