Facebook tells me that I posted this a few years back today.
Black is almost lost and plays Bf4. But how should white proceed?
Courtesy of MemoryChess, this popped up too:
Who’s ahead here, white or black?
The avarice of assertiveness without an ensuing assuredness has struck again. My daughter seized upon her father’s treasured possessions then reeked havoc with glitter! The copies I made of Chess in Bedfordshire, published so long ago (search within the site yeah) have…hmm…but being only 4 years old, Grace, perhaps convinced that a picture really does say a thousand words, depicted our great forefathers, and tbh, I’m not quite sure if she’s got it right there!
Posted in Personal Interest & Experience | Leave a Comment »
The image below comes courtesy of MemoryChess, found of facebook.
Posted in My own warped humour | Leave a Comment »
A fellow who, the last time we played fell victim to his failed From Gambit, despite being so close to ELO 2200 at the time (much better than me, I’m just rubbish), once said. ‘The rook’s gotta go to a7 init!’ But then I said ‘Oh, really? And when black plays Rf6, what ya gonna do then?’ Got no reply. so where should that white rook go?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.”
Michel Foucault
On Friday the twenty-third of December, the last eighty-five kilometers of the three hundred and more I cycled through and through this week took me to Bangkok Chess Club and back. There I played in a blitz tournament, and although a little tipsy at times, I put many people much higher rated in serious trouble, with everyone saying I am stronger now -don’t ask me how! The tournament winner I played in the last round, after the game my Lithuanian opponent rated around 2300 ELO said he was very worried about my kingside attack and was somewhat relived to win through! It was a great evening. So nice to see friends after all that has happened of late, check the video below to see what Bangkok Chess Club is all about. And before you ask, yes I do wear a bandanna, and Endgame clothing also http://www.endgameclothing.com/ , and yes the shorts I wear are army shorts, Calvin Klein of course; the colour coordination is (from top to bottom) dark green, dark blue, dark green, and then dark blue bike below -excluding the heavy orange belt. And why? I’m Irish/Scots by ancestry, that’s why. Why is the hue dark in both cases, well just look into their respective histories to find that answer. But just before you peek at the vid, Peter’s good website can be found here. http://bangkokchess.com/
I appear @ 0.15 and 1.18, BKK itself appears @ 4.00.
Chess is about struggles is it not?
“I’m no prophet. My job is making windows where there were once walls.”
Michel Foucault
Posted in My own warped humour, Personal Interest & Experience | Leave a Comment »
I was there, I played Black, it was a Ruy Lopez, Chigorin variation. I still remember his look at me after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 occurred, he thought ‘Should I play 3. Bc4 or Bb5’ he played the latter. His book on the Lopez back then was the best book still to this day written on it and btw yes he does have a 100% record against a certain GM names Gary Kasparov…no wonder I lost!!!!
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
Sweby adds details about Mardle’s award of a C.B.E. Assigning a home to William Ward is dubious. Himself aside, Mardle is the best chess player Luton has ever produced, and professionally, the most accomplished.
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 | Tagged Dennis Mardle, Luton chess player | 1 Comment »
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points | Wins | Draws | Losses | Pen Pts |
| Luton | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Bedford C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Milton Keynes C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| Open University | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| Bedford D | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Northampton | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
Ha ha ha…why would that be I wonder?????
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
Tell me why I don’t NOT like Mondays? Ha ha, no need to since the question is rhetorical.
It’s because on Monday next week I thought I’d saunter off down to some place called London and mill about in The British Museum. There, I shall meet former Luton player Nick McBride, and together we’ll have a look at the Lewis Chessmen.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/statements/the_lewis_chessmen.aspx
Posted in Life beyond the chess board, My own endeavours | 2 Comments »
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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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- 2011
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- 2020
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