In each of the last two years I have played over 1000 games on line. Naturally I played brilliantly throughout, except for when I was absolute rubbish or just downright diabolical. The moral of the story is ‘stay online, play online, lose online, go offline’.
Posted in Humour | Leave a Comment »
Perhaps you have noticed that the FIDE Candidates Tournament is in full swing, having ten rounds been already played. The field is packed like squared wheat over fields on a long summer’s day -you could also say they are closely bunched. Whoever emerges victorious can look forwards to a healthy pay check, dazzling limelight, many questions, months of preparation but not much else.
Let’s be honest, no matter who wins through, they will lose when they face Magnus -agreed? So how are we meant to take an interest in proceedings exactly? You could argue that both Nepo and Fabi have scores to settle and that both Liren and Firouzja have both beaten Magnus in recent months…but all that aside, as if anyone has any real chance of becoming the world champion any time soon…and so clinching the right to challenge may well be seen in retrospect as a pyrrhic victory in itself one with the media presenting to us a crestfallen opponent.
On a personal note, I find GM Rapport to be both charismatic and enigmatic, so it is him whom I hope the challenger is but condemned to view the final in the context of the result, it matters not one iota. And it must not matter one iota because I do live for my chess fanatically, and in the last match whirring round in my brain each day ‘I hate myself and want to die’ all day because the match was predictably one-sided. I don’t want to be killed off by chess, and so ‘it matters not one iota’…it must not matter.
Mark. J. McCready
00.43, Wednesday June 29th
Laksi, Bangkok
Posted in FIDE | Tagged killed off by chess | Leave a Comment »
Sincerest of apologies in not posting for a year. In truth there are conditions the service provider insists upon, which leave me less than impressed at times…it wasn’t that I didn’t want to write or had nothing to say, it was just that…
…and now those conditions have been, begrudgingly, met I am back although I have had to change the website name oh-so-slightly, since some slippery Russian went and stole my own whilst I was away! (thieving b******d)
…in short I will post throughout the summer since the afforded break from work presently allows me to do so….
…that’s all for now. I have poured my heart and soul into this site. I do hope you read on, and so cheerio…I shall be seeing you!
Mark.J.McCready
June 28th 2022
Laksi, Bangkok
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours, On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
If you are following the concurrent Goldmoney Asian Rapid, you’ll know that in the first round of Day 1 our world champion Magnus Carlsen was beaten by the teenage sensation Alireza. You can find an analysis of the game here:
I think this game tells us who the next world champion will be. It doesn’t tell us when although perhaps we can all agree it won’t be anytime soon, most likely at some point in the next 5-10 years.
Enjoy.
MJM
Posted in Chess | Leave a Comment »
If you prefer to make rather than buy a chess set, this video may be of some use.
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“It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right –especially when one is right.”
― Nietzsche, Friedrich
On the morning of Saturday September 3rd 1988, I sat reading Simon Webb’s Chess for Tigers, in the spare room of my very first home, just up the road from where I am now. And although it may well be a false antitheses, his idea of playing the man/playing the board has stuck throughout the years…
My entry into the national league ended in victory, but a fortuitous one at that for I know not to play on emotions, but that I did…I won for the team but it was nothing to be proud of…
“The final reward of the dead – to die no more”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
If contempt for familiarity exists, what then of unfamiliarity? With everything put ‘on ice’, as it were, what is it that remains habitual? Habit aside home is where the heart is and home is where my heart is… .
OTB chess is prohibited but online chess isn’t. The Bedfordshire league was where a homely me began my endeavours and unsurprisingly it is where my loyalties lie. After some thought, I have agreed to participate in the 4NCL, which began as the London league but has expanded into a national league. I chose to play for the only team which plays in the Bedfordshire league, Milton Keynes. Upon the eve of play words for me. The sense of occasion is, of course, lost with play online, and so too the sense of pride is lost. All I can really say is that I have the white pieces and my opponent won’t know what’s hit him… .
“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Posted in On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
A favourite from yesteryear would appear to have gone awry, thankfully found once more. Hard to top indeed.
Posted in Documentaries | 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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