In case you missed it, here’s some quality journalism from the BBC. It discusses the chess phenomenon in Armenia and asks why such a small nation is so successful. Is Armenia the cleverest nation on earth? I don’t know but they are certainly the smartest in the Caucasus.
Here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004j7zg
You may need to be in the UK to listen, in which case the BBC iPlayer Proxy in you are a google chrome user. You can find it from the google chrome store.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
I grow warm, I begin to feel happy. There is nothing extraordinary in this, it is a small happiness of Nausea: it spreads at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of out time – the time of purple suspenders, and broken chair seats; it is made of white, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain. No sooner than born, it is already old, it seems as though I have known it for twenty years.
Jean Paul Satre, Nausea
Kents Athletic Club, Luton’s sole surviving chess hub is to close after nearly 40 years. It’s a typical story in modern day England; with a back drop of cultural decline, rising costs and dwindling numbers make the venue no longer financially viable. It is to be bulldozed, then someone will plonk a block of apartments on it most probably. This means that Luton, a town of over 200,000, will no longer have a chess club when the new year begins. Thankfully yours truly, though thousands of miles away, is not going to allow that.
The critical state of the chess club itself -almost bankrupt and without enough members to make ONE team, if you can believe that – has meant that the club and its demoralized members are struggling to find a new venue. Chess teaches us that risks should always be taken from a position of strength and not weakness, and so uprooting in such a desperate position could spell the end. But there are times when it is necessary to act quickly and confidently; it took me just three hours to find a solution and a new home for the club, much to the delight of the club secretary. The second phase is to readvertise and start promoting chess locally to attract members lost due to the poor playing conditions of recent years -that’s the easy part. We once had access to the ballroom at Kents, then we were pushed into the lounge, then into a tiny room at the back of an extension, much to the disgust of every visiting team. It is they more than anyone who will welcome the change of venue.
I might even fly in for the handover as the logistics of moving to a new venue are frightfully complicated, as the predicted conversation below suggests.
J =John (former friend)
M = Me
M ‘Easy geezer.’
J ‘Alright Mark, you alright?’
M ‘Yeah, alright mate yeah…er ya got those keys for that room then?’
J ‘Nah, never lock it mate, just go in yeah.’
M ‘Ah cheers.’
J ‘No worries mate…oh, er what dya’ wannit for again?’
M ‘Just some chess innit, we won’t wreck the joint, don’t worry.’
J ‘Ya better not, just off for a quick slash yeah, let us know if ya need anyfink.’
M ‘Yeah cheers.’
Let us hope that the new year brings revival for Luton Chess Club, it certainly needs it.
Where shall I keep mine? You don’t put your past in your pocket; you have to have a house. I have only my body: a man entirely alone, with his lonely body, cannot indulge in memories; they pass through him. I shouldn’t complain: all I wanted was to be free.
Jean Paul Satre, Nausea
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess | Leave a Comment »
From page 57 of Hendricks Move First, Think Later, Chapter 6 Pattern-like Knowledge. The following position is a good example of how we look for patterns in chess and fail to see solutions that do not fit into those. See if you can find the draw for white here, I know I certainly couldn’t. It’s white to play and save the game.
Hopefully you’ve made a genuine attempt to find the draw but here’s the solution anyway.
I think what’s tricky about that is that it looks like checkmate is in the air prima facie rather than stalemate.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
With an absolute stack of books and magazines on order from yesteryear, I thought I might share where I get them from. If you’re interested in antique, rare or out of print books as well as much chess paraphernalia that is quite ungoogleable, you could do a lot worse than click on the links below. Each bookstore I have used many times and can verify their professionalism and trustworthiness -just don’t go buying up all the best offers now!
Norwich’s own Glynn’s Bookstore http://www.abebooks.com/glynns-books-norwich/3949676/sf allegedly visited by Alan Partridge in search of Golding’s Lord of the Flies whilst researching the ‘numero one’ of radio debates in 1990’s England: that being, who was the best lord – Lord of The Rings, Lord of the Dance or Lord of the Flies. Click below for the answer.
Tony’s Bookstore or http://www.chessbooks.co.uk/. They deliver worldwide, including Kazakhstan. Here Borat talks about the inherently ambiguous term the Soviet School of Chess…or does he?
Lastly, Dale Brandreth’s site or http://www.chessbookstore.com/ They will sell books to anyone, even author and former Monopoly champ Giles Brandreth, whose career took a nose-dive into politics when he became a member of Parliament. Here is the verbose champ below, showing us all why Britain has fallen into decline. Monopoly fans take note that Brandreth’s book on Monopoly has never been bettered…admittedly, the clip below is intriguing. Brandreth claims that chess is English in origin…or does he?
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged dale brandreth's bookstore, glynn's bookstore, tony's bookstore | Leave a Comment »
As you would expect, The Telegraph has presented us with a well-written article on gender difference -or lack thereof- in chess.
Even though more women are taking up our beautiful game than ever before, they still face chauvinism from some of its more old-fashioned practitioners. Journalist Rachel Halliwell makes two noted members of that club appear quite foolish in her article, and equally as effortlessly, dispels a number of gender based myths that pervade chess. An incisive riposte -journalism at its finest.
For a philosophical take on the same topic, you could also try reading McCready’s own post here:
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged female chess players, women's chess | Leave a Comment »
I’ve started reading Move First, Think Later. Its an intriguing read and very modern in its approach. As you may know, it won the Chess Book of The Year award in 2012.
Here’s a demo by the author himself. The position studied is original and the approach by the author is revisionist and refreshing.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Tagged move first, think later | Leave a Comment »
You can find an interesting article on helping your children with chess on author Richard James’ site. Here is the article:
http://www.chesskids.org.uk/ckapg.pdf
I think it would be a good idea to read it in conjunction with another of his articles, which can be found here:
http://www.chesskids.org.uk/fallacies.pdf
Richard James is an acclaimed author, noted for his literature teaching chess to children.
Posted in Life beyond the chess board | Leave a Comment »
I recently bought the book ‘The only quiz book you will ever need’ and found a section on chess. To my surprise I got two questions wrong (1 & 14). You can find all questions and answers below:
Chess: Miscellaneous 1 Quiz 5 (page 137)
McCready’s bonus question:
One of the questions above contains a misnomer. Which question is it and what is the misnomer?
Answers:
Bonus Question answer: question 8 contains the term ‘Olympiad’, this is in fact a misnomer meaning the period of time between olympics rather than an event itself. Nearly 100 years on we are still waiting to have this changed in chess!
Posted in Personal Interest & Experience | Leave a Comment »
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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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