Tuition during lockdown

September 18, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

I found a video that I haven’t seen in a while, in which I give my daughter some training during the lockdown when the Corona virus was reeking havoc on everyone’s lives. My daughter is only aged 7 in this video.

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On this day…

September 18, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

Here’s some content from Bangkok Chess Club two years ago to the day. Lighting could be better -yes I know.

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Project abandoned

September 17, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

I am sorry to say that I cannot continue any longer with the pinball-chess project. It was working brilliantly and some serious money was going to be pumped into it by investors but there’s a problem which can’t be solved. Everyone knows that pinball and chess are virtually identical, as we’ve said but in pinball you try to get a high score

No matter how hard I tried, this I can’t work with because in chess we win by checkmate and can’t get any high scores. I’ve come as far as I can go. The solution is to keep ramps and flashing lights with extra ball, and the exciting multi-ball option but without a high score in play. You can’t put high scores in chess no matter how hard you try. So that’s it. I am done with this project: it was good while it lasted. I know we all want multi-ball in chess, that’s obvious but I can go no further.

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The time for action is now

September 17, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

Having just read my last post, I am in agreement with myself, that now is the time to act.

I’m going to write a letter to my government, suggesting they set up huge bonfires across the country for chess players who want to see the end of their books. You will not have to pay money for this service I will tell them. One of which will be just outside the London Chess & Bridge centre, Baker St. London

If you could just fill in the form below, I will start petitioning pronto, just put a tick in the last column for petition one

Petition 1 (of great importance)

Name of club

Books you are keen to burn

Town you reside in

Tricked into this by McCready

Petition 2 (additional information)

Hat size

Inside leg measurement

Shoe size

Vegetarian?

What is your quest in life?

Petition 3 (naughty boy info)

Do you sniff glue?

Are you an alcoholic?

Smoke drugs?

Have you ever mugged anyone?

Petition 4 (manifestation of guilt…oops extra info…yes extra info, that was what I meant)

Been behind bars have we?

Do you carry shooters when you play chess?

Worshipped the devil during competitive chess play before?

Does anarchy rule supreme for you?

All names received all much appreciated, I shall get onto this right away.

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‘The road to ruin’ OR burn thy books pronto: on the double now!

September 17, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

Have you become a loser recently? Losing most of your games are you? Well, are you? If you are a loser all the time, then come to me and read on –I have a lot of experience there!

What do you do to prop yourself up after scathing defeat? A cursory glance at your rating for comfort? Reflect upon decorative victories further along memory lane?

Or do you emancipate yourself from the literary genre encompassing our beautiful game and turn your attention inwards? Have you ever lamented in front of your opponent ‘It was those fucking books I’ve been reading, they said?’

Our soon forsaken literary genre is turning digital these days but still carrying presuppositions which are transcending it’s new found medium-and you are the one paying for it!

If you buy into the blurb, which chess literature is replete with you study for improvement -to become a better player, hence the multitude of publications being churned out on opening repertoire and middle game play. Not to mention all the apps they are bringing out. And although I can’t prove it, the word on the street is the boffins programming them are all drugged up when they do it and the GMs roped in can’t live with themselves because they can’t cut it at the highest level so resort whatever alternative means of revenue they can get their hands on -awaiting further proof.

But should you remove improvement from your motivations, replacing it with the pleasure principle -everything changes. No longer will you stand on your chair in the club, screaming out ‘Them thar books got me all discombobulated! I’ve lost again.

You wouldn’t have started playing chess if you weren’t fascinated by it. No one starts out wanting to improve, it’s love of the game that keeps you coming back for more. But then so many become lost thereafter mainly because there is no profit in writing about playing just for pleasure, so they get hounded out. My advice is to play on but play for pleasure and not improvement.

In prioritising pleasure over improvement, you should enjoy your chess more by becoming unconcerned by results the hits to your self confidence stop, and those soul destroying defeats no longer matter. And who doesn’t want to enjoy our beautiful game more. It may sound like a false anti-thesis in play here but the bottom line is competitive play is defined in terms of results and not how much you enjoyed your game -which is of no importance.

It’s quite simple isn’t it? Stop looking at one thing and look at another instead.

But then why do so many buy into the desire to become better by achieving better results? Looking the other way when you factor in all the effort needed, the pressure it puts you under, and the stress becomes entangled in the smallest of smallest minutiae. And what happens when you reach your very own plataeu and can go no further -what then? Sold into it enough to buy more books, looking for the answer there?

Trust me sweetheart -it’s really not worth it. And above all else, isn’t it you leading your own life. Isn’t it you who chooses who and what to listen to.

Just go back to the very beginning and decide that improvement is not important but the pleasure you gain from playing is, and stays so.

I’m not so great over the board -I’m really not. But I know all too well that being a club player I can put 200 ELO points on my rating quite easily if I put the effort in and slog away. Most, if not all of us could. But not all of us fall prey to the sales pitch that comes along with it…

In order to avoid the road to ruin, head for the path to pleasure and forget about how good you are.

You could argue that eventually it becomes inevitable anyway. Most who hit retirement have already abandoned the latest theory as they are in the process of winding down, and sooner or later we all wind down. As mentioned in a previous post, you may define yourself in accordance with the institute or playing premises you are a part of instead, and just keep it as that if you so wish.

There is no road to ruin down that path. No pressure, no stress, and nothing to lose also.

Since it’s your life, it’s up to you but you should be able to clarify why you play and what you want out of it. And that answer really ought to be personal, decided upon by you with your own decisions made. Rather than something espoused by a literary genre you attached yourself to unwittingly. Ultimately it’s your call, and how rationally informed your decisions are, only you can answer. All I can do is put a few pointers along the way.

You have choices although. You may not realise this but you do. The abandonment of improvement and the stigmata of it’s uncompetitiveness will, once overcome, point you in a different direction. Maybe then, just maybe, you might even thank me for the pointers in play here -as always it’s your call.

And should you define all this as a leap of faith, one which you do not feel ready for, seek out the members of your club who are not interested in studying chess, and bringing along the baggage of chess theory. See how they are in your club and learn from them. You might one day call them ;the happy bunch’

Lastly, Mark’s mystery question about that post:

There is a line in the post which is directly taken from this truly wonderful cover song. Can you guess what it is?

Mark

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2 years ago.

September 17, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

The two pics below were taken on this day two years ago. It was around that time that I played the opening in question against GM Bogdan.

Petrosian V Spassky 66

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Still of the night

September 16, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

If the room is dark, it’s late at night, and the AC is on, you can bet on it that I am up writing. If not then perhaps an early night was had instead. So what is it I have to tell this time -not much. I’m not doing much during the day, and I have only just started playing on-line again. So there’s nothing current to talk about it seems. Enough has been said over the GM Niemann saga already I think. The sooner that’s forgotten the better. And yes I have seen this week’s videos of Kasparov being himself -which is one good reason not to link them.

In the still of the night, I don’t hear a wolf howl. I sit in total silence…it’s as if I were playing chess. But I do purposely insert lyrics from songs that are relevant to the post. And that aside, sit quietly, well aware that silence is golden. We insist on it for competitive OTB chess, and we seek it when we want to sleep. Indeed it is a wonderful thing which is there to be taken advantage of. But what we don’t want is rock music in the background, accompanied by a somewhat cheesy video -that we can do without.

What constitutes noise pollution in tournaments around the world depends on the country and the people organising it. Talking in the playing hall is rarely allowed but it happens. Burping is out but some do it. Farts, yes there’s plenty of them, silent mode is the preferred with that one. With sleep its different and often not a necessity. For if you are tired, you are tired and will sleep. Personally I don’t know what to say as my life is quiet at all times. The life of an economic migrant usually is because we change our location to work. Then we work when we get there and don’t usually do much else.

I suppose I have to factor in my age. Teenagers are into stuff and often make a hullabaloo about it. I’m way past that, several decades and a bit more on top. I don’t need to be doing stuff or making something. You could argue the older you get, the quieter the life you lead being generally true. So with that said its more of the same for me, and then even more after that. What does constitute noise pollution and sleep, well as said there are different factors that need to be taken into consideration but even if they aren’t noise is something we can get used to if we have to. Speaking of noise, here’s Whitesnake with Still of the Night

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Wir vergessen nicht was war

September 16, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

Lest we not forget how we got to where we are. Oftentimes the journey is arduous and full of pitfalls, some of which we fall into. For some just being alive is an achievement, and I should know. If you try to characterise the type of player you will run into something which stops you. Not the ‘why’ but the ‘how’ and also the ‘when’. You may be able to pen a few words here and there if asked to define the type of player you are but establishing how you came to be what you are and construct time frames for what was absorbed into you is much harder if not downright impossible. After a while everything becomes a blur, after that it fades…then you are left with nothing.

Our very own histories are too complex to be straightened out and our paths cross with so many others. It never ends. So at best you may be able to describe the sort of player you are but not the process of becoming. This is not something I am an expert in so let’s just leave it there for now. I don’t try to define myself. I know I’ve always been better positionally than tactically but I can’t say much else. I just classify myself as a club or county player and leave it at that.

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, On-line journal | Leave a Comment »

Back in the groove

September 16, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

After five or six weeks of no chess on any level, I’ve started playing games on line again.

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Transportation issues

September 16, 2022 by mccreadyandchess

Solitude it is then. I don’t go out at all partly because I don’t want to and partly because there isn’t really anywhere to go. I could be forgiven for thinking my life doesn’t differ greatly from that of a prisoner. I am paid for what I do but that aside there are similarities yes.

Of course there is so much more to life than how much you stay in, and some of us are better at entertaining ourselves than others. But that said, the number of hours I am clocking up not by doing anything much is on the rise, that’s for sure.

Of course there is always the bigger picture to consider, and that is fine.

What isn’t so fine is that its too bloody hot to go anywhere by foot also, which if you prefer to avoid taxis is a bit of a problem. No buses. No trains. No nothing on the transportation scene. And so what does that mean? It means I should have transport of my own and here lies the problem. My transport is back in England because I didn’t bring it here. All I can do is wait for it to cool down. Which will start happening next month.

Things could far worse and normally are. The fundamentals are firmly in place. Minor issues here and there I can live with, and just maybe I will bring my bike over…well maybe.

And what’s this you hear about me being in a country whose entire Olympiad team I could beat quite easily? Yeah well, thems the brakes.

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