Dominic Lawson’s latest attempt to popularize chess can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04njstc . As was the case with the first series, a pleasant 15 minutes or so can be spent whilst listening, its usually helpful to play through the games too, all of which can be found on the BBC website. There’s something for everyone in the five episodes but I thought the last of the five was by far the most interesting in terms of the conversation and play over the board.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged aross the board | 2 Comments »
Bedfordshire’s finest ever player, GM James Plaskett, once decided that it was too difficult to make money in chess and tried showbiz instead. He entered the tv show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ and did rather well. When I last returned home to study, I spoke to friends about this, since his former teacher and mentor Paul Habershon still plays for Bedfordshire, and one of my friends remembers James very well, describing him as ‘learned’ from an early age, and likely to do well on such a show.
I found James’s performance to be intriguing on many levels, he seemed totally focused and completely unphased by the whole thing. The presenter Chris Tarrant didn’t know how to handle him at times, and showed great respect throughout I thought. I won’t say how well James did, or ‘Jim’ as he is known amongst friends, all I will say is that I only got half as far as he did, and I’m pretty strong on general knowledge. Anyway, enjoy.
(Video 1 – please go to 5.50 to Jim in action)
The last question which the author was able to answer.
Bedford Modern School. Though Mr.Habershon, still in the 190’s, beat my 1f4 when I was most active, one of his proteges, a certain Ben McFarlane, who had reached 170 before he left school was not so fortunate, resigning on move 28 if memory serves me correctly.
For a detailed account of James’s performance, click on the following link http://en.chessbase.com/post/james-plaskett-almost-became-a-millionaire
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged GM James Plaskett | Leave a Comment »
You can find the winner of the ECF Chess website of the year here. http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/. It’s a nice site with a bit of everything, though I personally thought its presentation could be improved. Anyway, if you are involved in club or county chess and are a webmaster too, you might take something from the site.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
Those who played in the Bangkok Open this year can find the pdf for the tournament magazine here http://bangkokchess.com/downloads/BCCOpen2014-Journal-web.pdf. Peter has done a good job of putting it together. There are some nice interviews, and the pictures reveal just how international the tournament is. I am unable to photograph it anymore and won’t be able to participate for a few years at least, however, some photos are still in evidence, the cover was one of mine I believe. It is a tournament I will miss very much.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged Bangkok Open | Leave a Comment »
The documentary ‘Chess Kids’ can be found in the following link
http://documentarystorm.com/chess-kids-special-edition/
It’s well-handled and worth a watch.
Answers to two wins & a draw
1) Ra8+ Kxa8 2.Qa1+ Kb8 3. Qa7+ Kxa7 4. Nc6+ (the move I couldn’t see) Ka6/a8, 5. Ra1++
2) I thought this was quite pretty. As you have probably noticed, black is already close to stalemate, so…1. Re1+ Kh2 2.Qg1 Kg3 3.Rd3+! Qxd3 (Kg4 will ose to Qd1) 4.Qe3+! QxQ Stalemate. Easy but pretty.
3) 1. Qa8!! (at first sight, counter-intuitive but winning). The rook cannot be saved, black can safely resign here.
Posted in Documentaries | Tagged chess kids documentary | Leave a Comment »
Whilst reading the truly wonderful ‘Chess: the history of a game’, by Richard Eales, I discovered that Benjamin Franklin once wrote an essay on ‘The Morals of Chess’. His comments show that he understood our beautiful game very well. The piece certainly reveals it age, his comments regarding ‘the rules of play’ made me chuckle. I would like to add that I am in concordance with the view that singing at the board whilst your opponent is thinking is rather ungentlemanly. After all, the last thing you want whilst deep in concentration is for renditions of the latest death metal number to waft across the board… .
You can find it in the Appendix on pg. 6.
http://www.benfranklin300.org/_etc_pdf/Chess_John_McCrary.pdf
Founding fathers of the USA or death metal?
A founding father of the USA or death metal?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged benjamin franklin the morals of chess | Leave a Comment »
The positions below are from Hodgson’s ‘The Chess Travellers Quiz book’
1) Wahls – Bjarnason Malo 1986, white to play and win.
2) Gogolov – Varshavsky, Luksena 1967, black to play and draw.
3) Pagilla – Carbone, Argentina 1976, white to play and win.
Answers to come soon.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
On September 14th, my home county Bedfordshire showed great resolve by beating Buckinghamshire in this year’s Fleming Trophy despite the fact that we were out-graded on 15 of the 16 boards.
You can find the match result by clicking on the following link.
http://www.bedfordchess.co.uk/beds-beat-bucks/
Well done Bedfordshire.
Posted in Personal Interest & Experience | Tagged bedfordshire chess | Leave a Comment »
If you are in England and want to find the club nearest to you, click on the following link
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zWKYm66MxysA.kC97MoNcSLBk
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged nearest chess club england | 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.
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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- 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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- 2010
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- 2011
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- 2020
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