Posted in My own endeavours, Personal Interest & Experience on January 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Leighton Buzzard – Nov 1988 Snow & Heavy Metal music (Iron Maiden)
Letchworth - Feb 1989 Set off in wrong direction & Nose bleeds
Islington - May 1989 Sunshine & Heavy Metal music (Acid Reign)
Hitchin - 1989 – 1991 6 times & no great games
St. Albans - April 1992 Unable to wake up & bad chess
Portsmouth - Feb 1993 Solid chess & fond memories
Nottingham – April 1995 No real interest in the tournament
Those are the places and dates I played tournaments in. Nothing to write home about.
MJM
Posted in My own endeavours on January 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
In the early to mid-90’s I achieved the following at my club:
So what is it I am not saying?
Oops!
Mark. J. McCready
Posted in My daughter, My own endeavours on December 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.” Plato
One platitude I ascribe to is ‘Home is where the heart is’, and although I am so very proud of where I am from, unintentionally or otherwise, it stopped being home a long time ago; partly because year twenty-four of not living there is rapidly approaching, and partly because priorities change as we age whether we like it or not.
Chesswise I am most certain more years as an active member of Bangkok Chess Club (10-20 on & off) than Luton Chess Club (around 10) have now amassed. With many more friends based in Bangkok than its predecessor, I do see its chess club as my home club, and have done so for quite some time…you could say ‘somehow it just went that way’. Being housed in a pub is always an improvement as you can’t beat a cold pint of cider or six whilst you play OTB.
It’s been 6 months since I last played chess -no I don’t miss it. Online chess has been outlawed then got slapped with a lifetime ban. Yes I have even thought about stopping completely and giving the game up again, just like I did back in the 90s. But it is my every intention to take my daughter to Bangkok Chess Club on the fifth day of the next month. I want to see friends and socialize with them, and the more exposure my daughter has to chess the better. Most probably I will play her to see how much she remembers, as she has lost interest and become inactive. It might be the case that I just hang out, drink some cider, chat with friends and play no more than the odd game or two. However, I may elect to play in a blitz tournament though, and most probably will.
So I shall not go 7 months of no chess but its the overall experience of being amongst old friends that is important, and as mentioned, reacquainting my daughter with the game too: it has got nothing to do with wanting to play chess, which is not in play this time around. The arbiter, and old friend, who runs the club and organizes the Bangkok Open is the same person who employed my ex-wife -that’s how we met. He was instrumental in us hooking up, our child was soon to follow – and visit her in hospital when she was born he did. Had he not given me her mother’s details when I asked who she was at the chess club, there would be no Grace McCready. And that very place we played in then, is the same place we play in now. My heart is with my daughter and home is where the heart is -so I shall break my 6-month duck @Bangkok Chess Club, and my daughter gets to go to the very place where her father asked about her mother for the first time, and was given her contact details as a result -the rest is just history. Pics, videos and report to follow.
Posted in My own endeavours on October 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Deep in the darkest winter, when Covid came and ravaged the country, I was stuck indoors, unable to go out, unwilling to because it was so cold.
Under candlelight I played chess online for the team MK Phoenix, who participated in the London League, the 4NCL as it’s known.
But I grew up in little Bedfordshire, and there I played most of my chess. I knew of the London league back then because some of our league players played in it also, but only our very best. And so, I grew up weary of them, the prestige that league had, and never thought myself good enough to gain an invite for a team there.
But everything changed during lockdown and play in it online I did. I only played 5 games or so and scored 50%. Here is the final position from one of my games, the best of them I think.
Posted in My own endeavours on July 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — F. Nietzsche
Who said triangulating passions was ever easy? You trundle into town on the train to see one, behind it lies another, and going live a third oh how to play it… .
“Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us.”
― Emil Cioran
Early Morning
I awoke this Sunday morning unsure of what I would do with the day. For only yesterday I had spent the whole day in ‘the big smoke’ escorting students around. And in case you are not aware, London is always heaving with tourists in the summer. Did I want another day of being swamped by them? As I lay in bed, it did not take more than an hour to decide I wanted to enter the city to watch the annual ChessFest unfold. I wasn’t sore from yesterday’s walk and it beat lazing around all day in bed. So some hours later I readied thyself for the eleven am train, two tickets, and a loss of £22.50… .
Late Morning
“Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. “ — Plato
Roll out of bed I did. Roll into town too. Ze Beacon to be precise. Marks & Spencer’s even more so for two cheese and onion sandwiches priced £2.30 each. Then I did, fortuitously, bump into colleagues having breakfast shortly before boarding the train. The train, the journey. I closed my eyes for much of it. The train was empty, the journey quiet, noticeably uneventful… .
When I arrived at Victoria Station I enquired whether trains departed from there to Canterbury and if so how often. Then I walked to Trafalgar Square, it wasn’t far. I only had to cut across SW1, backstreets -the most famous of which being Buckingham Place- then onto the parks by the palace until the square came into site… .
Early Afternoon
“The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known long since.” – Wittgenstein.
The Chessfest at Trafalgar Square was in full swing when I arrived. But something seemed so wrong from the get go. How could it be so busy so early in the day? Were who I saw playing chess really chess players or just tourists in the vicinity at the current time? But much more importantly, how was I to be? Why exactly was I there? Yes I had concerns that the event would not live up to its billing but it wasn’t only about the chess. I also had Ze National Gallery within reach, and there was Ze Men’s Wimbledon Final to watch on my tablet too. Thought was required on how to triangulate those and squeeze them all in side-by-side so that they didn’t overlap… .
Before I had a look round I challenged some Chinese guy to a quick game. But he was rubbish and got himself mated early in the middle game. After a quick walk round with some pics taken, it became obvious that discovering a schedule for events was not possible and I also wasn’t sure exactly when the tennis started. I knew the programme for it started at two but thought the tennis itself started at three. I was wrong and tuned in early in the first set. Chess quickly took a backseat as I watched that first set play out on the steps to Ze National Gallery, in and amongst all those playing chess. With the first set over, I walked around some more, chatted occasionally and took more pics. Watching the tennis began on the steps in the square where I could keep an eye on the chess too but this proved to be far from ideal. Too much glare from the sun made viewing difficult so I crept into Ze National Gallery, planted myself down in from of some Turner masterpieces and watched the third set there. But that wasn’t enough. I had a walk round and saw Carvaggio as well as several others such as Monet, Friedrich and Pissaro. Tennis took over and only when sets were won would I leave the gallery and go and watch some chess… .
After the third set in the tennis, live chess was played in the square. I took an interest as seeing it was a first but I didn’t really like how it was done, so my interest didn’t last long. In the first game the play was paused as a quiz question was asked; namely, what is the name of the opening being played. It was I who answered correctly and enabled play to continue (The Sicilian Defence)… .
The tone of the afternoon was set: tennis, gallery, chess. Time passed fast, so fast. Soon it was close to a fifth set and the chess had barely an hour left. I decided to walk back to Victoria station so that I could watch the end of the match on the train, which I did -well done Alcaraz!
End of day.
Mark. J. McCready, 6.58pm, July 18th 2023,
Room 6, 114 Pevensey Road, Eastbourne.
Posted in My own endeavours, On-line journal on July 13, 2023| 2 Comments »
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
What to do with chess exploits this weekend then? Just how much chess do I want in my life? We do have the opportunity to frequent a new chess club tomorrow and also to visit the chessfest in London. https://www.chess-fest.com/
For that a quiet train ride on a Sunday afternoon is required, yes with the Wimbledon Men’s Final that afternoon to juggle too, but a first chessfest it is and win through is has done.
One outing per weekend for chess is quite enough thank you. I asked work to ensure I would be free Sunday, and so a Sunday afternoon of chess in London it be. I shan’t be dedicating myself entirely to it since The National Gallery just behind where the action kicks off in Trafalgar Square is quite something too. Last time there, mightily impressed with Canaletto I was.
So I might just play in a simul, well maybe, supposing it’s an option even. All in all it shall be quite enough methinks, and if its all too much, then more priority to in The National Gallery and the Wimbledon Men’s Final will be granted before I stroll off to Victoria Station where I shall catch a south-bound train to the coastline. Do I think an outing of chess this weekend is better off alone? Yes. Sometimes one is enough.
Mark. J. McCready, 8.23pm, Thursday, July 13th
Room 6, 114 Pevensey Road, Eastbourne.
Posted in My own endeavours on July 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
You know how it is. You work late. You fall behind schedule. New location, new chess club. Not as easily found as I thought. Eventually I got there. And although I was told it started at seven, it was closer to nine when I arrived. When I arrived there was only four people present and they were packing up. Some woman suggested that someone unpack and give me a quick game but I got out of that fast with excessive politeness. I wasn’t in need of a game and didn’t want to play anyone. I was the youngest there: I wanted to get out fast. Dead atmosphere despite the attention of me being new. Very politely I declined the off the cuff suggestion of ‘a quick game’ as quickly as I could. And that was that.
Should I return to Eastbourne Chess Club? I don’t know. I have phased out chess from my life more and more and more this year and I would like it to continue that way. Yes less has become more but. Maybe I will bother, maybe I won’t. Who knows… .
Mark. J. McCready, 7.42pm Saturday July 8th
Room 6, 114 Pevensey Road, Eastbourne, Sussex
Posted in My own endeavours on June 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The Unpunished
With no competitive chess in play, it could be argued that I am going unpunished for allowing bad habits to seep into my game. But what is this! ‘No competitive chess’? Do tell us Mark, must it always be this way? No. Depending on work constraints, I may enter a tournament in August. Thanet – a Kentish peninsula – to be precise: https://www.eastkentchess.org.uk/congress .
5 games over 3 days with the chance to spend time with a close friend in his country mansion sounds good enough but what needs to be done then? What needs to be done? As things stand, on line chess has been banished but it will have to be reintroduced with a longer time frame (minimum 30 mins) because due to sloppiness I have stopped assessing my opponents moves in terms of threats and reasons for being played. This must be corrected: and corrected poste haste. If only to get back in shape and to ready myself.
The Damned
Online ratings have dropped and packed off into oblivion. There’s a new rose in town and it is OTB@daklubb.
The Obsessive
How do we reverse bad habits and undo what we have done? Not easy is it? To look forwards and not backwards helps but does it help enough? But that repeated action which whirs on and on and on, is really nothing more than a vestige of the past or is it?
Mark. J. McCready, 2.51pm Sunday, June 11th
Alone in Luton
Posted in My own endeavours on June 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The Blackout
No chess apps kept on tablet. No more on line chess. No viewing tournaments on line. No chess outside my home club. No thinking about chess. No other contact with the beautiful game.
MJM
Posted in My own endeavours, On-line journal on May 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I told myself to visit the chess club but I couldn’t. I told myself to because it was meant to be my last visit to the club this year and I wanted to say goodbye to friends and playing partners there. But somehow it didn’t feel quite right, it wasn’t really goodbye.
Most of the members @Bangkok Chess Club are transient and I am no exception. I have relocated many times before, only to return the following year, and for this reason it didn’t really feel like a ‘goodbye’ more so a ‘see you soon’.
And that was how it was left…
MJM
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 