Archive for September 22nd, 2022

There’ll always be an England

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Life Offline: ‘England will always be my home and has a special place in my heart’ although for tax reasons, I will always stay here in the desert and steer clear of Rip-Off Britain the place as much as possible.

Life Online ‘Yes I am British‘ and when surfing the web I do gravitate towards all things British, and chess is no exception.

Life istelf: we do have a our own great forum, which can be found here: https://www.ecforum.org.uk/index.php

In addition to this, the hard work John Saunders is putting into Britbase, really is starting to show. Britbase is a well ordered site listing past results and tournaments. Should you want to look at tournaments in the uk from a bygone era, this is the site for you. It’s well put together and is a treasure trove of info: https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/

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Promotional shoot

Posted in Chess on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Getting my feet wet as photographer
That’s very me.

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It’s the little moves that matter

Posted in Chess on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

It’s the little moves that count. Just move that one square to there, and that one, just nudge it forwards slightly -that sort of thing. As the game below shows. Tis moi’ in action, winning effortlessly.

https://lichess.org/PZLHpE6oeXko

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A summing up of sorts.

Posted in My own endeavours, Personal Interest & Experience on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

You may have noticed that I am, on the whole, disdainful of chess literature. In case you ever wondered why, these comments (under the username olcmarcus) pretty much sum up my position on the matter.

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Dear Ken 14

Posted in Dear Ken, Life beyond the chess board on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Dear Ken, your on line agony uncle for troubled chess players.

John, Leighton Buzzard Dear Ken, I am the president of my club and recently members are pressuring me to ban a member. I also want to ban him but I don’t know what to say to him. He comes into the chess club walking very slowly and with a white bishop in his mouth and a big grin. He brings his dogs too and forces them to watch him play. The problem is that he isn’t very good at chess and always loses but when that happens his dogs start growling at you and on one occasion they attacked his opponent and wouldn’t let go, just before he was about to deliver checkmate also! Now I don’t know how good his dogs are but they seem to be able to follow the game because if he blunders, they bark at him and tug on his clothes! What should I say to him? You can come but don’t bring those dogs? They are big dogs as well, and this makes many in the club uneasy as they should be playing fetch the stick and not chess.

Ken: Well if his dogs can play, why not put them in the team and make up the numbers? But give them some treats and tell them to stop growling during the game, and not to bark also, that should do it.

John Leighton Buzzard: but when they get excited they start wagging their tale and running about. It puts people off, me included. They never stay at the table, and like to chew their opponent’s shoes also! What should I do?

Ken: well you could put a muzzle on them and tell them to be good boys. Put them in the team and see how they get on, probably they will play paw-to-king-four!

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A supporter takes a step back and stands firm

Posted in Chess on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

One of Carlsen’s admirers and supporters, as you may know, is the English GM Danny King. For his take on the GM Hans Nielmann incident you can watch below. Thankfully a degree of humanity shines through and a balanced view is offered. King draws attention to the ramifications of what Carlsen is doing, which not everyone does. The term he chooses to describe what’s going on is ‘unsportsmanlike’ which is on the mark if you ask me. Carlsen’s game against Praggnanandhaa is shown with commentary thereafter.

Breaking the silence of the night, is Carlsen going to do it?

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Welcher Traum auch kommen mag

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

So it’s ten years and counting before I rise up to the challenge (if I live that long). I think my state of mind will be ‘I’m running the club because I want to, and whether or not anyone wants to is another matter’

Says Mark, future club and league president.

Not exactly the first time. I’ve handed out a trophy.

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A lack of maturity?

Posted in Chess on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The malaise regarding GM Hans Niemann and the current world champion isn’t going away anytime soon. If Carlsen wanted to, he could speak out. He doesn’t, which in my opinion, constitutes a lack of maturity on his part. What does he have to gain by letting it rumble on? Carlsen can be heard talking about it in the link below. My own interpretation is that he is letting himself down here, but that’s just me.

https://clips.twitch.tv/MiniatureArbitraryParrotYee-aLGsJP1DJLXcLP9F

For a broader context, involving a number of commentators, you can tune in here.

There is a sense of no one really knows what to do. Little is said why everyone has to make such a big deal over cheating allegations.

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Wir vergessen nicht was war 2

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Luton Chess Club on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Or ‘we don’t forget what was’ in English.

More pics and details about the revival of Luton chess club to follow…and yes it is only a matter of time before I return to the helm and run the club myself (marooned abroad so about a decade)…assuming it hasn’t folded by then of course.

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The Freshers fair 22

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, Luton Chess Club on September 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The University of Bedfordshire/Luton chess club recently attended the freshers fair in the student union at the university main campus in a bid to attract new members. There are pictures below where lifelong club members put their wits against the freshers!

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