Following elite chess is far from easy for a number reasons, some of which are more obvious than others. If I can’t work out how the mechanics involved then at its highest level chess is most likely to remain something of an enigma. If you’re an academic at heart, lamentably a philosopher, then the altered perspective involved in judging individuals by their character and not their ability makes it all the more harder. Of course there is an ethical dilemma involved which is not easily overcome; namely, to what extent should professional and private lives be kept separate? And although some of those in the elite adhere to the classical stereotype of what a chess player typically is more than others, until we invest time in understanding, and not just judging their character, the waters are left undisturbed and opaque. GM Hikaru Nakamura was not particularly well-liked for a long time, mainly because he had a distinct habit of pulling faces over the board but once you get to see him in action and follow him through his youtube channel, then you can see him very differently indeed. In the clip below we can see Hikaru playing to his strengths and succumbing to his own weaknesses. Being a man of the world I can tell you exactly why Hikaru is tutoring the young lady below but perhaps that’s best left unsaid…
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
Going to change my profile pic on chess.com but am undecided which of the pics below to choose.
Posted in On-line journal | Leave a Comment »
The 1956 grading list has been republished, unfortunately not a single player from Bedfordshire is on there. Why this is so is unclear since D. V. Mardle of Luton won most of his tournaments between 1955-1963 and was clearly one of the strongest players in the country at the time. The list is linked below.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Leave a Comment »
If you saw the very American The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix you, like many of us, probably found certain aspects unbearably painful to watch for various reasons. And so what better way to take a look at the mainstream media than to hear it from he who would know better than anyone in terms of the games played. World Champion Magnus Carlsen does a good job of exposing many points which we just would not see in high-level competitive chess.
Posted in Chess | Leave a Comment »
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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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