A game I have been fond of for many years can be found below. It’s worth a watch and shows Spassky at his best.
Either I’ve gone up in the world by being given administrative control over my home town club so that I can organize tournaments online or I’ve gone down in the world by giving into a request to resume the role of club tournament organizer, a role I relinquished many moons ago…
Whatever the case may be, the first in a series of tournaments went down well. We had 10 participants and some old friends were there. I managed to come joint first with 4/5 but board count put me in 4th overall as my loss came earlier than the losses by those also joint first.
Overall I am quite happy with my performance and have included two games, one constituting a loss where I missed a clear win, and the other showing my cut-throat style in full force against an old friend and playing partner.
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Chess, Selected on-line games | Leave a Comment »
I’m becoming concerned here as I prefer to engage in the workings of machinery rather than the appearance of them. What lies below isn’t an accurate reflection of how things are. Representing my county online and being the top player in the team depicts the absence of those who count more so than show who is present.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
Dependant upon which side of the pond you sit, you may have noticed The Queen’s Gambit became the number one show on Netflix recently or not! Courtesy of the current digital revolution sweeping the globe, no one lies beyond broadcasts. It’s not often chess reaches ”the silver screen” and when it does it’s usually in the form of documentary and not TV series. But the latter fits into mainstream media more -that audience being old Joe Public of course. Given that its an American production, and what with dumbing things down being a cultural norm out there, this obviously set alarm bells ringing for those of us in parts of the world that are cultured comparatively. And for those of us who are academics also, it raises questions over the definable nature of the market and whether a domestic market does indeed exist anymore? If not, exact who is your intended audience and how is this reflecting in the scripting/writing process? Admittedly, at first I assumed it was all going to be very American and that all the characters were likely to be obtuse, the plot ingratiating, that we’d see cars crashing through windows and things being blown up all the time, and all the characters had either a hotdog or hamburger in their hand, and were loudmouthed throughout too -but perhaps that’s just me succumbing to stereotypes and not thinking properly!
The current world champion Carlsen described it as being ‘a bit too unrealistic’, which is either him being diplomatic or that being something of an understatement. I found it be something of a joke from start to finish and stopped watching early on. I did notice that most chess players really enjoyed it but perhaps that’s a reflection of the conservatism chess is spellbound by rather than a cinematic appreciation of what was shot. What I mean is that the show deviates from the trite we usually end up watching considerably in terms of content, since documentary doesn’t incorporate and depict aspects of deviancy like the aforementioned show does. I tried to watch it three times but just couldn’t force myself and found it to be superficial and all too mainstream American.
Anyway, if you want to watch a clip between the main character and an actual female chess protégé, then click on the link below. It’s not exactly wonderful viewing as Judit is rather shy and perhaps excessively polite. The comments from the main character in the show are most certainly not going to be remembered as a great advert for it, and if anything, far from it. It made me wonder whether the cultural difference and backgrounds in play, was alas, too great to be overcome.
https://en.chessbase.com/post/queens-of-chess-beth-harmon-and-judit-polgar-have-a-little-chat
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I posted the following on fb nine years ago today.
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The confectionary I couldn’t play chess without once upon a time. Cost -55p: rating increase +5.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
I posted the following on fb nine years ago to the day.
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A mere 26 years on, since I ran away from the responsibility of being Tournament Organizer at my home club, I’m back at it again. The difference is, this time its all on-line quickplay stuff, which is a damn site easier to do than club championships where more than half never even shown up once!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
It could be argued that the Soviets played much more attacking chess then their, comparatively affluent, counterparts in the west. Partly because of what is ingrained in their culture/spirit, and partly because winning meant more or at least in becoming titled the government made more effort to look after you, and partly because the competition was much stiffer. And here’s a fine example from the 9th Soviet Championships, a spirited Levenfish shows us how it was done.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1090615
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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.
Gallery
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- I’m either 10 or 11 here
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- 1982, myself versus Brian from Sunderland.
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- At the Thai Junior chess championships. My daughter of course.
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- Pattaya 2011
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- 2011
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- Thai Junior Championships
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- Pattaya 2009
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- 2011
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- Kuwait 2008
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- 2012
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- 2012
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- 2011 BKK Chess club
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- 2011
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2011 Thai Open
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- 2013 approx
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- Around 2014
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- 2010
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- 2012
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- Around 2011
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- 2011
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- 2011
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- 2013
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- Around 2011
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- Around 2011
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- 2020
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- 2011
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- 2008
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- 2011
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- 2013 or thereabouts
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- 2010
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- 2017
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- 2014?
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- 2010
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- 2024
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