I do quite like being referred to as a chess researcher, and just perhaps, I really ought to pull my website back into shape and start doing some more research later in the year. And why’s that you ask? Put simply -it’s been a really tough year. So tough at times my behaviour underwent deviations I was unconversant with and of grave concern to those closest to me. But rest assured I don’t die. Let’s rewind to two cycling accidents in 2016/2017
Injury Type
Quantity
Major accidents
2
Fractures in skull
2
Broken bones
1
Parts of bone lost
1
Parts of brain dead
1
Blood clots in brain
1
Drill holes in skull
5
Areas of damage to the nervous system
1
Collapsed veins
2
Stitches
98
Seizures
19
External injuries
70
Resulting Psychological Conditions
2
Areas of skin lost
3
That adds up to 208!
I should have died many times over across several decades long before that but I do indeed have balls of steel. I have super-stamina also. There is tremendous bounce-backability in play too for life isn’t really about what knocks you down but much more about how you pick yourself back up. And so what is my point? Well, it really has been a tough year, and so to cheer myself up I have undertaken efforts to focus on my positive points more and bring them into play. Positive points bring optimism. I need optimism after the year I’ve had. The year needs a strong finale and so a return to something I enjoy and am good at will improve the site no end.
I shall get onto this once the summer is over ( I have to relocate twice during it)…
Me on da train ta Bedford Chess Club, jus’ weekz afta me 1st maja accident. Nov 2016
Mark. J. McCready 0407 am Monday 19th June 2023
An empty, dark, quiet room where I feel very alone, Luton.
With no competitive chess in play, it could be argued that I am going unpunished for allowing bad habits to seep into my game. But what is this! ‘No competitive chess’? Do tell us Mark, must it always be this way? No. Depending on work constraints, I may enter a tournament in August. Thanet – a Kentish peninsula – to be precise: https://www.eastkentchess.org.uk/congress .
5 games over 3 days with the chance to spend time with a close friend in his country mansion sounds good enough but what needs to be done then? What needs to be done? As things stand, on line chess has been banished but it will have to be reintroduced with a longer time frame (minimum 30 mins) because due to sloppiness I have stopped assessing my opponents moves in terms of threats and reasons for being played. This must be corrected: and corrected poste haste. If only to get back in shape and to ready myself.
The Damned
Online ratings have dropped and packed off into oblivion. There’s a new rose in town and it is OTB@daklubb.
The Obsessive
How do we reverse bad habits and undo what we have done? Not easy is it? To look forwards and not backwards helps but does it help enough? But that repeated action which whirs on and on and on, is really nothing more than a vestige of the past or is it?
No chess apps kept on tablet. No more on line chess. No viewing tournaments on line. No chess outside my home club. No thinking about chess. No other contact with the beautiful game.
Luton chess club is to field a team in the Bedfordshire league for the coming season. Presently, it is being formulated and who is willing to commit being established. Most likely it will enter the second division as its strongest players cannot sign up.
It’s good news and hopefully the club will continue to go from strength to strength.
Due to the sudden onset or mental and physical deterioration, followed by a worsening of the aforementioned two, left floundering I picked myself up and plonked myself on a plane. Up into the sky I went, leaving Asia behind in favour of Europe. Homeward bound I was and it had to be that way. Earlier than planned yes. Nonetheless, the right thing to do it most definitely was.
Bangkok to Luton but which one is really home? Really, which one? Not so long ago that was Bangkok and I felt it in my blood. Okay, so I return to the club I grew up in but recognize the new location I don’t. Feel an affinity for it’s emptiness I can’t. Recognize one person only was all I could do. And that’s home? Is it really? It most certainly didn’t feel like it. Factor in I felt like an outsider, was I really home? But, then, what is home? Where, exactly, was that sense of homeliness I tapped into in Bangkok?
2 wheels NOT 4!
Here’s a video of my arrival.
Apologies for the sound of the wind!
Do you want to see what it looks inside? There isn’t much to see except lots of unused space.
An hour was quite enough, my excuse to leave being I had no lights on my bike, which in fact was true.
Not really my cup of tea.
What was I expecting then? When I thought about what my town is about, I thought my opponents would look like this:
About the chess. Damned if you play, damned if you don’t.
With rest and recuperation comes invigoration. I played twice and won twice with fifteen minutes on the clock. I blundered once but my opponent was weak. As one photo shows, patriotism prevailed and I opened with the English when I had the white pieces. It was pleasant to play but a longer break was needed.
…on what this site initially became…on what this site is now becoming…on what this site cannot become…
On what this site initially became…
…once upon a time, the chess-related musings of an adrift academic were bound playfully and electronically in this online journal of sorts. They grew and grew as the decade did too. I kept on because I love to write whether I had much to say or not; therefore, being read by others was usually of little or no importance, comparatively speaking. Content was based on personal thoughts and experience on various topics with no intended audience borne in mind. With topics broadening, my own take on things always shaped the narrative I constructed: I often thought I was insightful but never that I was right. Sometimes imagination gave rise to originality: and of that I have always remained proud. I often introduced humour, believing that I am funnier than I really am. Sometimes, I found my own style antithetical to the conservatism I believe chess is plagued by -oftentimes that has put a gracious smile on my face… .
On what this site is now becoming…
…this site is now becoming a collaboration of chess in Bedfordshire: much more so of the past than the present -that has become the dominant trend. I document the history of chess in Bedfordshire as much as I can, and as time has passed I have become more thorough and resourceful. However, I am not a trained historian as my background lies principally in philosophy but yes it is true I did study some modules on history as both an undergraduate and a post-graduate too; furthermore, I have trained myself up, particularly in terms of postmodern history. Since 2015, I have only read history and historiography as well as those philosophers who have been so influential on postmodern history, such as Nietzsche (whom I once wrote a 19,000 word dissertation on, entitled: Can the Will to Power be Found in The Birth of Tragedy?), also Richard Rorty and Foucault and I suppose certain structualists such as Claude Levi-Strauss too. Regarding postmodernism, mostly I keep to Hayden White, Keith Jenkins and Alan Muslow.
Some friends and former playing partners back home describe me as the ‘go to guy’ for the history of chess in Bedfordshire. This compliment says more about the lack of interest in the subject than my own endeavour. As mentioned, I am too adrift from academia to feel chuffed by it. Rather, I tend to lament that my historical research, like my chess, just isn’t what it should be. Even though I may well have a broad understanding of Bedfordshire chess history courtesy of the volume of research put into it, all of which began in 2014, this is not something I am particularly proud of. Nonetheless, out of courtesy compliments are graciously received. If the truth be told, I just see it as my job and only that – after all someone’s got to do it and no one else is that interested!
Amongst the many others, I have created three categories: ‘Bedfordshire Chess’ and ‘History of Bedfordshire Chess’ and ‘Luton Chess Club’. This website is slowly moving towards a consolidation of those (all of which can be found in one of the toolbars to the right).
On what this site cannot become…
…I like to be both creative and amusing when I can be, factor in that playfulness has been an ever-present factor, the content of this site should be thought of as multifarious. It could be said I continue to enjoy undermining the conservatism I believe chess is underpinned by even after all these years, and often try to use humour to do it still, believing I have got better at it. Consequently, despite the general direction its going in, this site cannot only be about Chess in Bedfordshire and nor will it be. It may become noted for that yes -in fact that’s been the case for years already even by established historians, archivists, and whoever else. External factors aside, this site is titled McCreadyandChess. I cannot, nor will I not, remove my own personal thoughts and experiences of chess from the posts of this site -especially if I think they are funny or original for they constitute my writing at its very, very best. In addition, the number of categories alone tells you that breadth of content is important to me. I am proud of my site, it is identity conferring and that is how it shall stay -end of story. All you really have are: ‘Some thoughts on the beautiful game’, which, incidentally, just happen to be my very own; nothing more, nothing less, take of it whatever you please… .
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.
Gallery
I’m either 10 or 11 here
1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
Pattaya 2011
2011
Thai Junior Championships
2008
2011
Around 2011
2011
Pattaya 2009
2011
Kuwait 2008
2012
2012
2011 BKK Chess club
2011
2011 Thai Open
2011 Thai Open
2013 approx
Around 2014
2010
2012
Around 2011
2011
2011
2013
Around 2011
Around 2011
2020
2011
2008
2011
2013 or thereabouts
2010
2017
2014?
2010
2024
2024
2024
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