Anyone play?
Last edited by Oracle; 16-02-2020 at 07:50 PM.
I was a fairly serious player when young. In early teens I won school tournament several times and played for a team in a league (our middle school was big on all sports, from football to cross country, to chess, and more).
Lost most of my ability now but would still class myself as “handy”....
Agadmator’s Chess Channel on youtube is superb if you’re interested in chess.... analysis of Grandmaster’s games.... Fischer, Tal, Kasparov, etc... it’s an education to see how they see the game compared to mediocre players like myself...
I played chess at school, but I gave up when I left school because I seemed to have stopped improving (and I hadn't got to a decently high level, anyway). However, I have beaten a Grandmaster -- although long before he became a Grandmaster. James Plaskett went to the same school as me, and I beat him a few months after he had started coming to the chess club.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
I dropped out of it through lack of opportunity really. When I started secondary school, the league team I played for (which was ran by the deputy head at my Middle School) fell apart. Chess was definitely not on the agenda at my secondary school... they were more interested in deflecting criticism after being featured on a Channel 4 documentary about crap schools!
I did contact the local chess club in the past 18 months, as I fancied entering a local tournament and seeing what I could do... however the regular local tournament no longer exists, and it appears you have to be a registered and 'graded' player to enter any tournaments now.
In Birmingham It was a hotspot. Place the original chess magazine originated. Helped out there for a while. A lot of strong clubs close. The proximity of the magazine is why a few well known players would surface at the local clubs occasionally eg I played Robert bellin a few times, an early British IM. Tony miles RIP first GM played for king Edwards. He was increasingly odd even then. His “ Birmingham defence” rattled Karpov, then world champion. Miles went off the rails completely when Nigel short eclipsed him. The inter county competitions and local congresses gave opportunities . I Burnt out by the time I was 15. Gave up completely by 18.
You only need a few games in a local league to get a grade: you probably should anyway, before Congress, to remind yourself about managing clock time.
Last edited by Oracle; 17-02-2020 at 07:10 PM.
There were a couple of good schools from the Birmingham area... in the team tournaments we were one of the ‘big 3’ at junior school level....
There was us (Goodyers End School, just north of Cov), and then Bentley Heath (may have been Solihull area) and Good Shepherd (somewhere in B’ham area).
Funnily enough even though I was good and took it seriously, there used to be a good hour or two between games and we couldn’t wait to get outside and kick a football around.
I remember at one tournament we broke a window. And in the local Congress tournament in Nuneaton I was playing football between games and managed to get my feet caught up in the nets and pull a set of goalposts down on top of me. I was in agony and couldn’t walk, but I finished the chess tournament then went straight to hospital to find I’d chipped a bone in my shin...
Who’d have thought chess could be so dangerous...!
And me :-(
Though I loved both 5 minute and buzzer chess. Was good at both.
One of the most fascinating books produced on chess is a lightning tournament played by all the then top grandmasters of the time ("chess match of the century" Fischer/Bjelica - 1970- I still have) in which Bobby Fischer wiped the floor with all of them , including the Tals and Petrosians. But the standard of chess is remarkeable, considering no time to think..
Hmmm. wonder if my copy of that book is the only one left in existence? Might be worth a few bob!
Last edited by Oracle; 17-02-2020 at 08:47 PM.