Posted in On-line journal, Sources of inspiration on July 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’ve started linking media from the website Reddit and will continue to do so because the community of chess enthusiasts and sub-categories is broader than most media platforms, meaning that it’s easy to find content that you can’t find elsewhere. Moreover, I do suggest you have a look at the site itself, as it has come on leaps and bounds from its early days…
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/ (this is the main one for chess but there are very many others).
Posted in On-line journal on July 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Posted in On-line journal on July 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I saw my daughter off to school and have only just taken my medication, so I have a twenty something minute window before I drop off hopefully.
Instead of getting myself ready for bed, I sit up wondering if a Grand Master has ever been tasered and if not who will be the first. This follows on from a tentative Kahoot I came up with entitled ‘Famous chess players who have either been bottled, stabbed, shot, whipped, batted, stun-gunned or tasered.’ Unfortunately, I can only think of one who fits in, and that’s not enough, I would need about twenty. What a great way to get myself ready for sleep huh?
Posted in On-line journal on July 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I don’t know what it’s like to sleep anymore. I am most alert throughout the night, like right now. My daughter, her mother, and grandmother have been asleep for hours, myself making quizzes and writing with affection.
I love my blog and I love writing in the dead of night. It’s 03.45 am and I am not at all tired. The room so dark, cooled by the AC blowing on me. Finding the right words isn’t easy although last night I did start a short story I have been thinking about for some time, and completed the first section. In writing so late I feel so at peace. I don’t really have much to say and I NEVER write to be read by others. I won’t continue that short story tonight, I am going to lie down and look deep into the dark. My daughter has to wake at 0530 to catch the school bus in time, and so like yesterday, I will stay awake so I can get her off to a good start. I love being a father and having the opportunity to be kind all the time, and so out of love I won’t sleep until she’s gone to school. My daughter Grace is the greatest thing to happen in my life and I insisted she have no middle name because I wanted her initials to be GM, and for a few seconds she was once the world’s youngest GM. It was at a tournament where I met her mum, it was my love of chess that brought about her birth. Mutual friends and playing partners are aware of this and, from time to time, point it out to those not in the know.
Be seeing you.
Mark
Posted in My own endeavours, On-line journal on July 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Recently I chatted on line to a Swedish friend and former playing partner. He asked me ‘Do you play much?’. In truth I didn’t know how to answer that question as it’s not as straightforward as it seems. I told him I play a lot on line and left it at that. But as we know, there is a lack of seriousness with online play, and some would say it doesn’t really count. I think it can. Last year, and the year before I played over 1000 games on line each year, and at times I was in very good form, winning many tournaments and taking a strong GM into the endgame. That counts for something even though the games were all blitz but that aside, yes its true I haven’t played one game of OTB chess in 6 years now, and the club nearest I never go to because they meet up on Fridays, the day I usually leave the city. I neither play friendlies in the park nor try my luck with hustlers either (not that I know where any are). So I suppose I should have said ‘I only play on-line now’…it’s about all I have at my disposal. What would you say if someone asked you do you play much chess? Irrespective of your answer, you might want to point out that the question is grammatically incorrect because the modal verb ‘much’ should be used in negative sentences. He should have said ‘Do you play a lot of chess’, or ‘Do you play often?’ that’s better.
To end, I do miss OTB chess very much. I would rather my chess was more prominent in the off line world rather than the on line world. In our off line world events are characterized by the sense of the occasion. You don’t get that online, you don’t get anything.
Mark. J. McCready
01.53 am 12th of July
Tung Song Hong, Laksi, Bangkok
Thailand
Posted in On-line journal on July 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Between 1997 and 2009 I gave up chess altogether. Never thought about it, never played it, never followed it. I don’t recall what brought chess back into my life exactly, perhaps a part of me missed it. The funny thing looking back is that for a solid 6 years and more, chess has become so fundamental to my whole being, there really is no chance of me stopping again. Could you imagine a life without chess? Ghastly!
We have to learn to think ahead in chess, clearly so. In life can we calculate the why? Why chess is so important? Why we play? What we get from following major events? Can we question what we do so easily? Usually we can’t, and I can’t. If anything it is a passion, one fundamental to me. I am not a professional player by any stretch of the imagination, I’m not a journalist either, I am just a lover of chess but the depth of my love almost renders me a professional, as chess is forefront at all times almost. I have a healthy relationship with chess and I am conscious of the nature of it…perhaps enthusiast is a fitting term or keen amateur maybe. Defining who you are or what you do is commonly seen as a first world problem but to put it philosophically, knowing what you are passionate about is essential.
Should we feel pity for those who don’t play chess? Well it’s their choice but I do pity those who don’t or those who gave it up and can’t really get back into it. There is a lot wrong with chess, and on many levels. It’s too theory-dependent, its literary culture is almost criminal, and those at the top have almost nothing to offer beyond their own experiences. I could go on but won’t. Chess is also in good shape and being a spectator is great fun these days, another reason why we should pity those who don’t play.
It is 2am. Once more I sit in darkness, listening to the whir of the A/C, the room haunted by loneliness. My daughter is sleeping beside me, no one is awake, just me. Sometimes I write because I want to connect, even though I have little to say. Did I tell you I mull over a short story about chess. I might just start it. If you’ve read this far then well done. I have little to say except in one way or another, it’s all good.
Mark. J. McCready
02.53 am Monday July 11th.
Tung Song Hong, Laksi
Bangkok
Posted in On-line journal on July 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »
By the seaside we be. Listening to this track, I sit on the sofa.
Now to play that song again, and again and play an online game as well. I assure you I shall be victorious and will post it here.
And as expected but in naughty boy mode by stealing little moves that don’t seem to do much until my position is clearly won.
https://lichess.org/POslTxBxpLYe
Terminal 21 for shopping, then a walk along the beach coming right up! The joys of time off work!
Posted in Dear Ken, My own warped humour, On-line journal on July 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Dear Ken, the agony uncle to write to if you need advice.
Brian, Leighton Buzzard Hello Ken and thanks for having me on. Ken we’ve got a situation with one of the D team players. We think we know what it is but are unsure of what to do about it.
One of the D team players keeps getting up from the board, going into the car park, meeting someone in a car, handing them small plastic bags of something and collecting money. He does this about 20 times each match but it only takes him a minute or two, so he doesn’t get into time trouble but his behaviour is so suspicious. We think he’s selling drugs during the match but we can’t prove it. What do we say to him and what do we do if he is?
KEN: oh yes, so he’s making a bit on the side by palming off some pharmaceuticals to a few go-likelies. Well, clearly you should go out to the car park when he does and buy some off him too. Might make you enjoy your game a bit more, and if he’s selling uppers it might improve your game a lot, as you can calculate much faster on that stuff -trust me I know from experience.
Brian, Leighton Buzzard, you are saying we should be going on the drugs on match nights?
KEN: yeah why not?
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
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
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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