Posted in Moves I could never play on July 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
GM Mariotti, Italy’s first GM, played in the Beds. league for the 1970-71 season, hence the reason I take an interest in his games. I recently learnt that he liked to play the Dutch defence, Stonewall variation, and played it very well. The position below is from such a game and contains a move I could not play. With two pieces en prise I would be more interested in saving them than playing what is played below.
Here is the game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1093267
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on April 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
FM Gary Kenworthy has been one of the strongest players in the Bedfordshire league for decades. In his youth, many of his games exuded great strength as a player. The game included here is too tactical for me -gambit chess! Gary, rated over 2300, has just played 10. Qh5.
Too hard to calculate for me which means too much courage would be required to play it. I was taught by GM Schebler to play the Scotch 4 knights once but never played the Belgrade Gambit, which is what is played here. Very sharp. Could you play 10. Qh5? The game can be found below.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2392278
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Here’s a game from two senior, well-read figures from the Soviet chess scene. As I am sure you know, Kotov’s most famed publication is Think like a Grandmaster. This game should be called Blink like a Grandmaster. I am sure he did plenty of that when the queen sac came in! I can’t sac anything, let alone queens. In this game, yes there are highly favourable conditions surrounding it but it still requires deep calculation above my level to jusify as white plays another 20 moves before being totally lost. I could not play 30. … Qxh3+ here, could you?
I found this game here: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/mfm6170.htm
Here is the full game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1084375
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Before Carlsen came along, my favourite player was Karpov. Unlike him, I am not able to put my opponent in zugwang very often, if ever, being a BM like Diggle. In the following game, Karpov plays the sort of move only he could and I most certainly could not as it doesn’t seem to do anything to me. Here Karpov plays 24. Ba7.
How deep do you have to go to see that is worth playing? Let’s look at the final position of the game.
Black is almost in zugwang here. Squeeze play like the title suggests. Way above my level. Note that Karpov was not world champion yet when this was played. The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067846
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Courtesy of fb, this appeared today.
It’s safe to assume that if, unassisted, I could not see a move in a study, I couldn’t find it OTB also.
M J M
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Moves I could never play on January 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Moves I could never play on December 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Moves I could never play on December 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Moves I could never play on October 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Moves I could never play on September 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »
With Bob Hope and no hope the only two hopes I have at being good at chess, the rather radiant move below, that being 18. Nc6 is, above my level very much. The analysis required is so deep, and imagination is required as well. Yes I note that white wants to remove the dark-squared bishop which is a key defender but it looks like Black has enough still. Way, way, way above my level.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1034337
I found this game from surfing this: Tim Krabbe
M J M
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.
To add comments, please see the bell at the top of the page.
McCreadyandChess 