Here is the chess scene from The Wire, enjoy.
Peter Frost, a friend from Bangkok, has entered the Vienna Open and has taken a picture of the playing hall for us.
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, Vienna is a beautiful city, rich in culture and history. Would a playing hall like that bring out the best in you over the board on a hot summer’s day if it has no air-con and water is not provided?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged Vienna Open chess | Leave a Comment »
I have found an image of the ‘living game of chess’ played to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Wardown Park, Luton. It is described in detail in the following post (https://mccreadyandchess.com/2015/06/05/bedfordshire-chess-in-the-70s-its-past-and-its-future/).
Here it is, you may click on the image for a better view.
Second row, second image from the left.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Tagged chess, Queen Elizabeth II Coronation celebrations | 2 Comments »
The excerpt below taken from The Luton News and Bedfordshire Advertiser, Thursday Jan 20th 1939 depicts what the general public (and its journalists) still consider chess to be, that being a genteel affair played by the patriarchs of society, as the misinformed BBC recently confirmed: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/olympics/33109003
It is no longer 1939: this is how chess is presented by those within the game in 2015.
What a contrast indeed. Unfortunately for you younger guys, the cute Sopiko Gurumishvili is coupled to Dutch hipster and superstar GM Anish Giri. She’s also rated around the 2400 mark, so you’ll have trouble impressing her over the board also.
That aside Chess24.com offers the most interactive chess platform on-line and is so far ahead of everything else that endless hours of entertainment await you, a far cry from our bygone days indeed… .
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | 1 Comment »
In 1944, the newly formed Bedford Castle Chess Club played a match against the BBC Symphony Orchestra and beat them, see below for details: 
Next up ISIS, or should I say ‘The ISIS’, an old rival. What is interesting to note from the following excerpt is that more information is provided about the mystery chess player who spent time in a concentration camp where he used bread to make his pieces and pawns according to a previous report:
Here is another account of our mystery man. (https://mccreadyandchess.com/2015/06/09/what-to-do-in-a-concentration-camp/)
The old ‘ISIS’ Chess Club, Bedford.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
The following letter can be found on pg. 334 of ‘The Bobby Fischer I knew And Other Stories’ by Arnold Denker & Larry Parr (Hypermodern Press 1995). As you may know Fischer’s mother was named Regina, a charming reply indeed.
Posted in Quaint Chess History | Tagged regina fischer | Leave a Comment »
Any ideas on who this is?
Unsure? Here’s some video action please click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAjaeGMB51c. It is of course Russian GM Peter Svidler, who as you may know is a genuinely nice guy. I have known for some time that he is a fan of cricket but he doesn’t talk about it much. With that said I have found an interview from the Yorkshire Chess Association. It’s worth a read for fans of both games, here it is: http://yorkshirechess.org/interview-with-peter-svidler/#comment-10170
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
How to describe the knight
The following pages are taken from Donner’s The King (New In Chess 2006). For those who don’t know Donner is a great writer with a style all his own, of which the following passage is typical in many respects.
Diagram from Rowson’s very good book ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’ (Gambit 2000), pg. 122. Question, if the knight is on the edge of a board, does it still move in a circle?
More on Donner here, https://mccreadyandchess.com/2014/02/24/the-love-of-wood
How not to describe the knight
William Ward (more on him to come soon) once wrote a much maligned Laws of Chess, here is his account of the knight:
‘The Knight may be moved in any direction from the square on which it stands to the next square but one of a different colour, passing over the intermediate square, whether such square be occupied or not.’ (http://www.chessarbitersassociation.co.uk/Laws1912.pdf) more information can be found in Edward Winter’s good site here (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/laws1.html).
We experienced players can probably guess what Ward wants to say but would someone new to chess understand Ward’s concept of the ‘intermediate square’?
Donner
Oops, that’s Donner.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged Donner chess, knight moves in chess | Leave a Comment »
Most of us play through the opening on auto-pilot, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing provided we are prepared. But when your opponent plays something unfamiliar and we continue to play what seem like natural developing moves, mistakes can be easily made. Take the following game for example, yet another howler from The quickest victories of all time by Burgess, pg 8.
M.Vokac – P.Bazant Czech ch (Turnov) 1996
1. b4 d5
2. Bb2 Nd7
3. Nf3 Ngf6
4. e3 g6
5. c4 cxd4
6. Bxc4 Bg7??
A reasonable set-up for black if it weren’t for the bishop on c4!
7. Bxf7! RESIGNS (with Ng5 and Qb3 to come)
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged auto-pilot chess | Leave a Comment »
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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.
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