On the right path

December 23, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

I am already benefitting noticeably from abandoning online chess and playing Lucas Chess instead. The engine I chose, Cinammon 1.2c. I have to be at my very best to stand a chance, and in the dozens of games already played, I only have one draw. But in most game I really stick it to it and gain a strong initiative, sometimes with sacrifices. I’ve nearly had it beat quite a few times.

The most obvious benefit being it has revatalized my approach, level of seriousness and begun complexifying my decision making process for my moves. It’s pulling my out of the malaise 4 years of online chess created. There is work to be done as I am still making mistakes but less so and they don’t usually lose my the games, more so the initiative. Correction there is not work to be done, there is much work to be done. This is quite okay as I am already enjoying it because my style has become very attacking, and I am already far better than what I usually am. Happy to play 10 games a day, after all, I am am holiday and have to rest up anyway after the accident I had a few days back. Here’s a link to the draw I should have won, illustrated by embedded pgn, so you can play through it.

https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14443&p=313683#p313683

Impressive huh?

MJM

Posted in My Own Games | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

An unwanton depersonalisation

December 16, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

I am in the process of reducing down online chess to the point of elimination and reintroducing computer chess. The principle reason being I have picked up veyr bad habits with online chess and have become too used to weak opponents and bad moves being played against me. It’s had a very detrimental effect, so I have started playing computer engines to eliminate this.

But there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s all so depersonalizing. This is symptomatic of my ability because my primary focus should be my own moves and not my opponents. Play the board not the man as Simon Webb once said in Chess for Tigers, I need to starat complexifying my decision making procedure when I play because I have identified I don’t like it when I make bad moves: the more infrequent they become the better, More concentration required…

Hope springs eternal…

Posted in My own endeavours | Leave a Comment »

Local & national

December 16, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

We have Dennis Victor Mardle. Born and raised in Luton, a varsities champion who represented his country once in a match against Holland. Rarely out of England’s top ten players in the 50s.

We also have Michael McDonald-Ross, the man who Bedfordshire’s strongest player ever homegrown talent GM James Plaskett said was his toughest opponent ever in the Beds league in the 70s.

It’s 1965, the British Championship, and generations apart, they met over the board. The game itself was a draw and sadly uneventful, as the Sicilian Kan often is. Why is this game significant? It’s the first time two noted players from the Bedfordshire league met at the British Championship. They were both amongst the strongest our league has ever seen and met at the British championship in 65. I have no records of two eminent figures in Bedfordshire chess history doing so before them. If presenting Bedfordshire chess at a national level is important, this was the first recorded instance.

I did speak to Michael McDonald Ross about this and he does still remember the game. Fyi in terms of rating they were both about 2200-2300. Anyway, here’s the game, forwarded to me by Mr. Paul Habershon, he who continues to offer help and support when he can always.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2064348

MJM

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Who Wants to be a Millionaire chess special 4

December 16, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

Unlike the popular gameshow, features such as ‘ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50‘ are inapplicable here -sincere apologies. Unfortunately, there’s no money to be made from this also. 🙂 However, do your best but do it alone please -no googling!

Question 1 £100

Which piece sits aside both the king and queen at the start of the game?

A: Pawn

B: Bishop

C: Knight

D: Rook

Question 2 £200

Which of these is not an example of under-promotion?

A: promoting a pawn to a queen.

B: promoting a pawn to a knight.

C: promoting a pawn to a bishop.

D: promoting a pawn to a rook.

Question 3 £300

The term zwischenzug means what in chess?

A: an announcement of stalemate.

B: an inability to make any good moves

C: an adjustment of a piece

D: an in-between move

Question 4 £400

Which former world champion has a term involving a weapon named after him?

A: Steinitz

B: Lasker

C: Alekhine

D: Kasparov

Question 5 £500

Which maneuver can be classified as artificial or by hand?

A: castling

B: double check

C: pawn promotion

D: en passant

Question 6 £1,000

After 1. d4 is played, if black then plays 1. …b5, this is known as what?

A: The Czech Defence

B: The Hungarian Defence

C: The Austrian Defence

D: The Polish Defence

Question 7 £2,000

The fifth official world champion was from which country?

A: Germany

B: The Netherlands

C: Cuba

D: The Soviet Union

Question 8 £4,000

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen’s real first name is not Magnus but what?

A: Henrick

B: Oscar

C: Sven

D: Per

Question 9 £8,000

How many non-european presidents has F.I.D.E had?

A: 1

B: 2

C: 3

D: 4

Question 10 £16,000

Sans Voir is a term which refers to what?

A: Blindfold chess

B: Kriegspiel

C: 960 chess

D: Bughouse chess

Question 11 £32,000

The F.I.D.E 2004 World Championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko was held in which country?

A: Germany

B: Italy

C: Austria

D: Switzerland

Question 12 £64,000

Who was the world blitz champion of 2021?

A: Hikaru Nakamura

B: Magnus Carlsen

C: Maxime Vachier Lagrave

D: Sergey Karjakin

Question 13 £125,000

Who, in 1991, was the last player to become Soviet Union Chess Champion?

A: Evgeny Bareev

B: Artashes Minasian

C: Alexander Beliavsky

D: Garry Kasparov

Question 14 £250,000

According to rule 7.3 of the 2023 F.I.D.E rule book. If a game has started with colours reversed, what is the most amount of moves that can be played by both players before the game is discontinued and a new game restarted?

A: 9

B: 10

C: 11

D: 12

Question 15 £500,000

The celerbated problemist Genrikh Kasparyan, known to be one of the greatest end-game study problemists of all time, had which title in classical chess?

A: CM

B: FM

C: IM

D: GM

Question 16 £1,000,000

Who won the first World Open held in New York, 1973?

A: Bent Larsen

B: Pal Benko

C: John Fedorowicz

D: Walter Browne

So there you are, well done if you did well. No money once again I’m afraid owing to being a poor English teacher. I do put thought into this, so if you got more than half right, you did well. Hope you enjoyed, you might even want to give it a shot yourself! 🙂

Mark. J. McCready

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Answers to Who Wants to be a Millionaire chess special 4

December 16, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

  1. B
  2. A
  3. D
  4. C
  5. A
  6. D
  7. B
  8. C
  9. B
  10. A
  11. D
  12. C
  13. B
  14. A
  15. C
  16. D

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special | Leave a Comment »

If…

December 13, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

If there is one thing chess teaches us that is of greater value than all else, surely, it must be the importance of learning from your mistakes.

If we apply to life what we take from chess, imho in the paragraph above therein lies the answer.

MJM

Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »

Chat with Peter Gayson

December 8, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows;
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

A. E. Housman, A Shropshire lad

80’s Luton board 1 player Peter Gayson talks bout pitting his wits against the toughest.

MJM

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess | Leave a Comment »

Before or after?

December 8, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

In chess you get letters before your name if you do well. CM, FM, IM, GM for example. Even though they are worthless outside their field, they are nonetheless a source of great pride for a great many and rightly so.

If you enter into academia instead, you also get letters but they usually come after your name -or at least they used to-, with certain exceptions such as Dr. Given that they are academic in nature, and embolden numerous transferable skills, which sounds weightier in terms of value? Should we frown upon titled players given that we have more letters than they do or should they frown upon us for having letters after our name and not before? Does anyone really care?

Which seem more cherished and why? What does that tell you? It seems to me that academics care much less about letters after their name as they tend not to be boastful about this whereas titled chess players are rightly proud of their title (even though its worthless outside of chess). Within chess, though, it is clearly advantageous on a number of levels, and generally speaking, holds greater importance than current rating, well for weaker Grandmasters most certianly, less so for the so-called SuperGMs. Whatever the answers may be amongst the very great many who do or do not play our beloved game the answer may be found in Nietzsche’s maxim ‘live by your passions’, which according to him, we all should be doing (note: not ought to be doing as that implies moral obligation which is not the point here).

Advice: should you encounter a titlted player and they point this out with statements such as I am a GM, you can always counter by saying something like, ‘no you are not, you are you, and whenever you bypass the normative aspects of what something is you invaribaly end up saying very little about it’.

As I am sure you know, there is snobbery in chess, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Ultimately though, everyone gets on just gets on fine and many refrain from defining themselves in terms of their titles, which to be fair, are identity-conferring.

All that aside, enjoy your chess. (ah, yeah and this just be me wanting to write again even though I don’t have much to say)

MJM

Posted in Personal Interest & Experience | Leave a Comment »

The inevitability is axiomatic

December 8, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

…eventually I will return home, its only a matter of time…

…when I read Homer’s Odyssey in Summer 1993 I distinctly remember when Odysseus returned home there were many unwelcome suitors at his home, gaff much to his dismay…

…I wonder not if I will feel the same but I am unsure what will come of it all…

…technically speaking I am almost inactive and have been so for some time…

…I have become quite unused to competitive chess, whether I will resume playing is something I am yet to ponder…

…it is undeniably true in all eventuality I will resume some responsibility although the extent of that is likely to remain undetermined until my presence is felt…

…no doubt I will get shanghaied into something or other…

…1997 seems like a long time ago now…

…what’s most important of all is that it is inevitable, its just a matter of time…

…I had thought I would not return to classical chess but more recently realized, it is infrequent tournament chess pushing that agenda and not contempt for classical chess, more so being out of form through lack of practice…

….once a dream that I would return home to run my old club and county is, given the distinct lack of competition, not just a dream and more so a probability than a possibility…

…I cannot say when this will occur as it is contingent on other factors more pressing…

…as Arnie once said ‘I’ll be back’…just not quite sure how I feel about it yet.

…ah well 

…time will tell…

…above all else it must remain the case that those of us within Bedfordshire should continue to enjoy league, country, and national chess…given that theres always someone better than yourself, lets see how it pans out…perhaps it’s just a dream…

Mark. J. McCready, Mandalay, Myanmar

Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »

Small victories with no cankers but with medallions.

December 1, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

It shouldn’t bother me but it does. What’s that then? How comes my daughter is attending more chess events then I am? Once again she’s off helping her mum out whilst I sit alone in a room in a city where I know not one person, with no action going down.

However, I graciously accept this because the more interest my daughter has in chess, the better I will feel. Long may it continue…I mean them assisting in chess tournaments not me sitting all by myself here, unable to get a slice of the action, as Aristotle once said: fuck that shit fuck that dude.

On and on it goes. We put the work in but there is no job to do. You could say we just do what we gotta do. Let us hope in the coming month there will be times where I can play chess and watch my daughter play too. I have time off coming up, so let’s see.

Yelling with my mouth shut: ‘the good news is Grace is getting more involved in chess now, small victories is what we are gettin’.

Posted in My daughter | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »