Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category
A trip down memory lane…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Selected on-line games on December 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
World Championships Analytics 1
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, World Championships Analytics on December 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
You might want to consider the following, the main factors to assess are; rook activity, pawn structures and just how defendable is that white a pawn?
Which century are we in?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Selected on-line games on October 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I can’t say I ever was an admirer of Steiniz tbh. In fact with Morphy no longer on the scene, it wasn’t until Alekhine imperially rose to the throne, that chess became worth looking at in close detail.
I always thought his wandering king was just dubious conceptually, and likely to be his downfall eventually. So what am I doing playing the opening theory in fashion during his reign, and drawing inspiration from his antics? Having fun, that’s what, as the video shows. An amusing victory both antiquated in its approach but highly effective nonetheless.
Olcmarcus
such a swindle & what a fluke
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Solidarity in the St.George’s Defence
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on October 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Curiouser and curiouser
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on September 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I think I can hold it for the simple reason I can generate counter play.
If I stick the king on d6, I can push the e-pawn when the time is right. Whether I am right or not, I shall find out in due course. I also have the option of pushing the f-pawn to slow my opponent up.
A fanciful quest for identity…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on August 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Should we both warp and strictly adhere to Collingwood’s concept of what history is, we could argue that Bedfordshire was the stopover point of a Grandmaster smuggling ring during the cold war. With strict adherence to Collingwood, the claim is unchallengeable and irrefutable if and only if intentionality lies at the very heart of discourse thus of history too.
Ok so I have no evidence of the above claim concerning a smuggling ring in operation and neither has anyone else but that’s not the point. It’s unfactual but history, for Collingwood, is about establishing why people wanted the things they did, in particular what they had in mind. Since the governments played with their cards close to their chests always to resort to ‘the facts’ as Ranke would is rather pointless as you can never unearth them all anyway. A pertinent point is if we warp into the equation a dose of drunken deductive reasoning we could argue pre-conceived notions of my country’s strength in yesteryear doubled up as pretext for positional play left without discourse until now. Again its factuality or lack thereof remains inconsequential but also partially explaining why no Soviet or American Grandmaster showed their face in the Bedfordshire league despite its ‘locality’. Whether what found counts as identity-conferring is, perhaps, rather fanciful if not overtly playful academia. (Note to self@ Mark, if you recall you wrote an essay about Collingwood’s devotee Dray during your MA, and there was nothing fanciful or playful about that if you remember those long April days.)
Is it 2.30am already? Hmmm, abandon academic musing and conjecture for a game of blitz on-line then bed methinks… .
Olcmarcus
On-line beasthood
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I’ve agreed to play in my first on-line tournament, now all the rage as pandemic sweeps the globe.
I became an on-line member of my home town chess club and that’s the organizational body.
It’s an unprincipled decision because the digital revolution we are currently undergoing is pernicious. You can’t compare on-line tournaments to those in the real world, to do so is ludicrous and unworthy of consideration.
But with a blind love of chess pushing the agenda, I shall participate, and try to be at my best.
Wish me luck. Being rusty I will most likely need it… .
That time what I was seeing, I could not believe…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on March 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »
As some of you may know the incredibly beautiful Arriane Caoili has passed away at a young age. I met her once in London and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So much so I walked over to her game to see if she was, in fact, a chess player -and yes of course she was.
Condolences go to her family, Lev and all her friends;
Farewell and may you rest in peace.
Mark.J.McCready
A curious thing…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board on March 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »
To have matches cancelled, leagues, tournaments, and much more…what to do? Risk death just for a hobby? I hardly play so no effect here but I do pity those actively engaged in what must be trying times.
All the best. Pandemic aside, I hope it makes you stronger.
I have my writing projects to give me some, but not much joy.
MJM
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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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- 2017
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- 2014?
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- 2010
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- 2024
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- 2024
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- 2024
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