I posed another question on the forum I often contribute on but this time it has a googleable answer. For those outside the UK, the question pertains to England.
Then I went and asked one trickier.
Mark. J. McCready
Here is a short video containing England’s best players in 1991 and their account of chess at the highest level in England and in general.
Posted in Documentaries | Leave a Comment »
As any loving father would do, I call my daughter frequently when away from her to check up on how she is, what she is doing, and what -if anything- she needs.
Today, when I asked her what she is doing, she said she is playing chess. She then showed me
Even though I’ve spent over half my life playing chess, I can’t say what sort of opening this is. If black were to play 2. …a6 next, then it would most likely transpose into the St. George’s Defence, which is not usually met by an early Be2, although the bishop does sometimes go there.
Creative Gracey.
Posted in My daughter | Leave a Comment »
I do recommend you scroll through the columns below as they will help you form a picture of what how chess was played in Bedfordshire then. There are noticeable differences to nowadays and it is a critical mistake to assume our county was unified back then -it most certainly wasn’t.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
Tom Sweby, in the reportage below, argues that the date of formation regarding Luton chess club which appears in the 1933 publication Chess in Bedfordshire is contestable. You will find the aforementioned publication on this site.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century | Leave a Comment »
Kent’s club Luton was well established in the Bedfordshire league for decades. How did it come about? Read on.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
Tom Sweby, once described as a ‘tame communist by a former pupil who went on to put pen to paper also, is perhaps best known for his column in The Luton News, which ran for decades and was quite readable. That began in 67, but prior to that he also wrote for them and other newspapers on a freelance basis too. Not only that, he had a column in The Beds and Herts Pictorial which predated that in The Luton News. They are more or less the same and vary content both local and international, and both exude that lack of attention to detail he too frequently fell foul of. As far as I know, I am the only one who reproduces his columns and with this it is hoped that a greater appreciation and understanding of chess in the 50s in Bedfordshire will emerge. It must be said that chess wise the 50’s isn’t a decade which exemplifies strength and depth in Bedfordshire. This view is based on club and county results which were reported, the team members also indicate that the clubs in our league were not terribly strong back then.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
Well done Tom Sweby, the one armed bandit, for posting an objection to evenings of chess in Luton. But was anything ever done about it? I thinketh not!
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
It would appear I am not the only Lutonian to have a marriage brought about by chess.
I should also add that Dennis and I share teammates and I am assured under circumstances containing no doubt whatsoever that Dennis suffered from Polio, which he contracted after drinking from a cracked cup at the ground of Luton Town football club. It was his work on polio that would lead to him receiving a C. B. E in 1988. I should also add that there is a further question pertaining to the reportage, that being that he did not in fact meet his wife at Hastings but rather at the British Championships, where they are both documented as participating in.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
My home town Luton not only had its own league but also its own schools league simultaneously. Whereas reportage of the Luton league appears in several other posts, evidence of the schools league can be found below. If only it were true today!
It should be noted that at the bottom of the column the initials T.W.S are Tom Sweby’s, who was a science teacher at Challney Boys School, appearing in the league table above.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | 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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