Nothing is said in the BCM about the nature of this match. Northampton joined the Beds. league in the 80s it is often thought. There is no evidence of this happening before then. Furthermore, the Beds. league retained its north/south divide until the mid 50s, which practically rules out the possibility of this being a league match, and is instead a friendly.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | Leave a Comment »
Details below can be found concerning a SCCU match between Bedfordshire and neighbouring Hertfordshire. The match is dated December 3rd 1928.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1920-1940 | Leave a Comment »
FM Gary Kenworthy has been one of the strongest players in the Bedfordshire league for decades. In his youth, many of his games exuded great strength as a player. The game included here is too tactical for me -gambit chess! Gary, rated over 2300, has just played 10. Qh5.
Too hard to calculate for me which means too much courage would be required to play it. I was taught by GM Schebler to play the Scotch 4 knights once but never played the Belgrade Gambit, which is what is played here. Very sharp. Could you play 10. Qh5? The game can be found below.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2392278
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play | Leave a Comment »
Former British champion, and celebrated author, retired GM Rowson offers up his thoughts upon the challenges of returning to competitive chess. Thought provoking indeed and wistful in places.
https://substack.com/@jonathanrowson/note/c-249105686?r=5lwyqf
M J M
Posted in Chess | Leave a Comment »
Much can be gleaned from Vishy’s life and thoughts on the modern game from this interview. A good watch.
M J M
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GM Fabi Caruana’s podcast C-squared can be highly engaging and informatative at times. In this episode, Fabi gives great insight into a wide range of topical points, beyond contemporary issues. He does indeed have so much to say sometimes… .
M J M
Posted in Chess | Leave a Comment »
On this day thirty-eight years ago, I played a Grandmaster for the first, but not the last, time. It was a simul yes. I was black, the opening was the Ruy Lopez closed, Chigorin variation. I was outplayed in the middlegame and lost. He did have a 100% record against the then current world champion Garry Kasparov, so it’s hardly surprising. He also wrote a critically acclaimed and very thorough book on the Ruy Lopez about a year before also.
Can you guess who it was?
M J M
Posted in My own endeavours | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a game from two senior, well-read figures from the Soviet chess scene. As I am sure you know, Kotov’s most famed publication is Think like a Grandmaster. This game should be called Blink like a Grandmaster. I am sure he did plenty of that when the queen sac came in! I can’t sac anything, let alone queens. In this game, yes there are highly favourable conditions surrounding it but it still requires deep calculation above my level to jusify as white plays another 20 moves before being totally lost. I could not play 30. … Qxh3+ here, could you?
I found this game here: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/mfm6170.htm
Here is the full game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1084375
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play | Leave a Comment »
Before Carlsen came along, my favourite player was Karpov. Unlike him, I am not able to put my opponent in zugwang very often, if ever, being a BM like Diggle. In the following game, Karpov plays the sort of move only he could and I most certainly could not as it doesn’t seem to do anything to me. Here Karpov plays 24. Ba7.
How deep do you have to go to see that is worth playing? Let’s look at the final position of the game.
Black is almost in zugwang here. Squeeze play like the title suggests. Way above my level. Note that Karpov was not world champion yet when this was played. The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067846
M J M
Posted in Moves I could never play | Leave a Comment »
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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